Oregon

En route from La Verne to La Grande, while in cruising altitude, a wing separated and detached. Out of control, the airplane entered a spin and crashed in flames. The pilot, sole on board, was killed.

While descending to La Grande Airport, the crew encountered poor weather conditions. Flying at low altitude above mountainous terrain, the twin engine airplane struck power cables and crashed in flames on a mountain. The aircraft was destroyed and all three occupants were killed.

The crew was engaged in a firefighting mission and departed Medford Airport around noon. En route, three engines stopped and/or lost power and the crew lost control of the airplane that crashed into Diamond Lake. While the aircraft was damaged beyond repair, both crew members were injured.

While approaching Baker on a flight from San jose, both engines stopped simultaneously. The pilot lost control of the airplane that stalled, struck trees and crashed few miles from Baker. The wreckage was found four days later, on May 19. The aircraft was destroyed and all seven occupants have been killed.

While on a night mail flight, the pilot encountered poor weather conditions when both engines stopped simultaneously. The pilot attempted an emergency landing when control was lost and the airplane crashed on a 40° slope mountain. SAR operations were conducted but eventually suspended few days later as no trace of the aircraft nor the pilot was found. Mountaineers found the wreckage on March 21, 1969 near Imnaha.

Fairchild F-27 N2712 operated on a flight from Klamath Falls to Seattle via Medford, North Bend and Portland. Because snow was falling at Klamath Falls, the aircraft was loaded in the hangar instead of on the ramp. There was some delay in pushing out the aircraft onto the ramp because the tow tractor lost traction in the snow. The aircraft was exposed to the falling snow for about 11 minutes before the plane was able to taxy out to runway 14. A few minutes later, at 05:01 the aircraft took off. During the takeoff roll, after rolling about 1000 feet, the aircraft gradually served to the left. The nose wheel left the ground 600 feet prior to the main gear at a point where the track was half way between the center of the runway and the left row of runway lights. The left main gear was about 12 feet off the left edge of the runway for a distance of 250 feet prior to lift-off. Just after lift-off the aircraft swerved sharply to the right and immediately back to the left. On climb out the aircraft tended to the left, despite several course corrections. After reaching 5250 feet, the altitude dropped again to 4700 feet. The aircraft continued to climb until it crashed on a steep ridge on the northwest slope of Stukel Mountain at an elevation of 5049 feet (1539 m). The F-27 was in a right wing low attitude when this wing contacted the mountain; the aircraft then cartwheeled up the 30° up slope of the mountain. The aircraft was destroyed and all four occupants were killed.

West Coast Flight 956 departed San Francisco (SFO) at 18:44 for a flight to Eugene (EUG), Portland (PDX) and Seattle (SEA). The brand new DC-9 aircraft, which had been delivered to West Coast Airlines just 2 weeks earlier, arrived at Eugene at 19:34 and took off again 18 minutes later. At 20:04 the crew were cleared to descend from the cruising altitude of FL140 to 9000 feet. While turning to heading 300°, the aircraft descended below the clearance altitude and impacted the wooded eastern slope of Salmon Mountain at the 3830 feet level. The aircraft attitude was 30° right bank, in a 3-4° climbing flight path on a heading of 265°. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 18 occupants were killed.

The crew was engaged in a fire-fighting mission in the region of Klamath Falls. While flying at low height in strong wind conditions, one of the engine failed. The crew was unable to maintain a safe altitude nor the good track when the airplane struck tree tops and crashed in flames in a wooded area. Both pilots were killed.

At 11:05 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 1959, Tommy’s Tigator took off from Boeing Field for an experimental low-level flight test. Five employees of the Boeing Airplane Company were on board the B-52D: Lewis E. Moore, commander/pilot; Joseph Q. Keller, copilot; Gerald G. Green, navigator; Charles K. McDaniel and Neil Johnson, flight-test engineers. The aircraft had been making test runs over Eastern Washington, Oregon, and Idaho since April 10, 1959, and was loaded with special electronic equipment for measuring stresses on the airframe and flight surfaces. The bomber was scheduled to fly at lower than 500 feet above the ground on an elliptical course from The Dalles, Oregon, to Malheur Lake, Burns, and back to Walla Walla, Washington, at near maximum speed of 638 miles-per-hour. At 11:30 a.m., Tommy’s Tigator radioed that it was over The Dalles and preparing to descend for the low-level test flight. No further reports were heard from the pilot after it passed the checkpoint. Leslie Heinz, a lineman for the Harney County Rural Electric Cooperative, was an eyewitness to the accident. He was working with a crew on power lines in a remote area approximately 35 miles west of Burns and three miles from the crash site. At about 12:00 noon, he spotted the B-52 flying southeast approximately 300 feet above the desert floor when it suddenly crashed. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all five crew members were killed:
Crew:
Lewis E. Moore, pilot,
Joseph Quentin Keller, copilot,
Gerald G. Green, navigator,
Neil Johnson, flight engineer,
Charles Kenneth McDaniel, flight engineer.
Source: http://www.historylink.org/File/10063

Parked since few months on a regional airport, the aircraft was recently purchased by a new owner who wanted to know the exact consumption of oil and fuel. A test flight was scheduled with two test pilots. To be able to perform a longer flight, additional fuel tanks were installed in the cabin. While cruising at a relative low altitude, the crew informed ATC that a fire erupted in the cabin and elected to make an emergency landing. The airplane crash landed in flames in a field located 15 miles from Madras and came to rest. While both pilots were able to evacuate with no injury, the aircraft was destroyed by fire.