1938 Yosemite TWA crash

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Coordinates: 3735'46.74?N 11929'36.53?W
1938 Yosemite TWA crash
Douglas DC-2.jpg
A KLM Douglas DC-2 similar to the one involved in the TWA crash.
Accident summary
Date March 1, 1938
Summary Controlled flight into terrain due to severe weather
Site Yosemite National Park, Madera County, near Wawona, California
Passengers 6
Crew 3
Fatalities 9 (all)
Injuries (non-fatal) 0
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Douglas DC-2
Operator Transcontinental & Western Air
Registration NC13789
Flight origin San Francisco, California
Destination Winslow, Arizona
The 1938 Yosemite TWA crash was the crash and disappearance of a Transcontinenta
l & Western Air Douglas DC-2 on March 1, 1938. During a scheduled passenger flig
ht from San Francisco to Winslow, Arizona, TWA's interstate hub, the flight enco
untered severe weather and radioed their intention to land in nearby Fresno. The
aircraft never arrived, and was found three months later having crashed into a
mountain in Yosemite National Park.
Contents [hide]
1 Flight
2 Disappearance
3 Search efforts
3.1 Hoax call
3.2 Discovery
4 Investigation
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Flight[edit]
The aircraft was TWA plane #327 AC-III,[1] NC13789,[2] a twin-engined Douglas Ai
rcraft Corporation DC-2-112 piloted by Captain John Graves, a former Army Air Co
rps pilot who won some measure of fame in 1932 when he located and dropped food
to a group of snowbound people in northern Arizona.[3] Crew members on board wer
e the co-pilot, First Officer C. W. Wallace, and stewardess Martha Mae Wilson.
Passengers on board included Mr. and Mrs. Walts of San Francisco, Mr. V. Krause,
Jay Tracy Dirlam and Mary Louise Dirlam (brother and sister who both attended S
tanford University), and Mr. M. H. Salisbury, a TWA pilot.[3]
The aircraft was flying from San Francisco to Winslow, which was a hub connectin
g TWA's transcontinental Los Angeles-New York route.[3] It departed San Francisc
o in good visibility, with a cloud ceiling between 6,000 and 7,000 feet (1,800 a
nd 2,100 m),[3] and had sufficient fuel to last until midnight.[3] The accident
report list the causes as "a change in wind direction and a sharp increase in ve
locity, unknown to the pilot, together with the pilot's confusion as to his posi
tion with reference to the Fresno Radio Range station, which combined to bring a
bout flight over mountainous terrain, ending in a crash at near his reported cru
ising altitude."[2]
Disappearance[edit]
Two hours after takeoff, the flight encountered a building weather front that de
veloped into the most severe storm on the West Coast in 64 years. During the nex
t four days, the storm caused more than 120 deaths and widespread flooding in So
uthern California.
As the flight neared the Tehachapi Mountains near Bakersfield, California, Capta
in Graves noticed ice forming on the wings. He advised air traffic controllers,
who ordered him to divert to Los Angeles due to the deteriorating weather condit
ions.[3] Graves replied that he planned to divert to nearby Fresno due to the lo
cal weather conditions. At 9:28 PM, he requested a weather update, and this was
his last transmission received by air traffic control.
Search efforts[edit]
Officials based their search area on the reports of Mrs. C. G. Landry, who was o
perating the Edison Electric Company power house on Huntington Lake, approximate
ly 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Fresno, and observed the plane at 9:29 PM flyin
g along the San Joaquin River at an altitude of 500 feet (150 m).[3] The search
was concentrated in the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains to the east of Fres
no.[3]
The severe storms that lingered throughout the week hampered searches for the mi
ssing aircraft. Pelting rain and heavy winds prevented the use of aircraft in th
e search, forcing searchers to rely on automobiles, which were eminently unsuite
d for the rugged mountain terrain. Harold Bromley, the Fresno inspector for the
Bureau of Air Commerce, told reporters that the "visibility in the Fresno area w
as practically zero" as a result of the downpour.[3]
The general search involved both TWA and government officials, who drove to Fres
no from San Francisco and Los Angeles to aid in the search.[3]
As days passed, Transcontinental & Western Air grew increasingly desperate to fi
nd the aircraft, and eventually offered a $1,000 reward (equivalent to $17,014 i
n 2016) to anyone who could locate the aircraft.
Hoax call[edit]
On March 2, 1938, the day after the flight's disappearance, Transcontinental & W
estern Air headquarters told reporters that it had received a message purporting
to be from the United Airlines offices in Fresno claiming that the missing airc
raft had been found. The telephoned message said that the plane had been found a
pproximately 20 miles from Fresno with "several passengers injured but everybody
alive," as later reported in the Ogden Standard Examiner.[4]
Upon investigation, however, the message turned out to be a hoax, as the plane h
ad not been found. An outraged TWA spokesman denounced the message as "one of th
e cruelest hoaxes ever perpetrated." [4] Officials at United Airlines offices in
both Fresno and San Francisco denied that their employees had been the ones to
call in the hoax.
Discovery[edit]
Three months after the crash, the aircraft had still not been located. 23-year-o
ld H.O. Collier of Fresno began a personal search for the missing plane after in
terviewing numerous TWA personnel and studying charts of the flight path. In ear
ly June, Collier hiked into the snowy terrain northeast of Wawona, California, a
nd discovered the wreckage of the aircraft on June 12, 1938. The crash site was
located 32 miles (51 km) northwest of the area searched by investigators.
The aircraft was partially buried in the snow of Buena Vista Crest within Yosemi
te National Park. 8 bodies out of 9 occupants were thrown from the plane. Only t
he body of stewardess Ms. Wilson was trapped in the wreckage. All nine perished.
Investigators speculated that the aircraft had been blown off course while attem
pting to divert to Fresno and had subsequently lost radio contact. It appeared t
hat the plane had sheared off the tops of pine trees while in a steep bank and c
rashed into the mountain 200 feet (61 m) below the summit.
Investigation[edit]
On June 13, 1938, after the discovery of the crash site, Daniel C. Roper, the Se
cretary of Commerce, named a special board to investigate the crash.[5] As the m
embers of the inquisitorial board made their way cross-country from Washington,
D.C., the coroner ruled that the cause of death of the victims of the flight was
"accidental." [5]
See also[edit]
List of accidents and incidents involving airliners in the United States
Trans World Airlines
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "INCIDENT FILES, Box 133, Accident March 1, 1938 #1 Fresno, CA Plane #
327 AC-III". TWA Museum Archives 1929-2002, K0453. THE STATE HISTORCIAL SOCIETY
OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-KANSAS CITY.
^ Jump up to: a b ASN Database
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j UP (March 2, 1938). "AIRLINER DISAPPEARS -- NI
NE ABOARD. TRANSPORT MISSING SINCE LAST NIGHT IN HIGH SIERRAS.". Ogden Standard
Examiner. Ogden, Utah. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
^ Jump up to: a b UP (March 2, 1938). "FALSE REPORT OF SAFE LANDING BRANDED BY A
IRLINE OFFICIALS AS 'CRUELEST HOAX EVER PERPETRATED'; HUNT DIFFICULT.". Ogden St
andard Examiner. Ogden, Utah. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
^ Jump up to: a b Source: UP (June 14, 1938). "U. S. NAMES AIR CRASH PROBE BOARD
. BODIES OF NINE DEAD ARE BROUGHT TO FRESNO FROM YOSEMITE PEAK.". The Fresno Bee
Republican. Fresno, California. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
External links[edit]
Video footage of recovery efforts, eFootage.com, Accessed: May 24, 2009.
Photo of actual aircraft at TWA Chicago hangar circa 1934.
[show] v t e
? 1937 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1938 1939 ?
[show] v t e
Yosemite National Park
[show] v t e
Trans World Airlines
Categories: Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1938Disaste
rs in CaliforniaAirliner accidents and incidents in CaliforniaMadera County, Cal
iforniaDeaths in Yosemite National ParkTrans World Airlines accidents and incide
nts1938 in California
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