1938 Yosemite TWA crash
Encyclopedia
The 1938 Yosemite TWA crash was the crash and disappearance of a Transcontinental & Western Air
Douglas DC-2
on March 1, 1938. During a scheduled passenger flight from San Francisco
to Winslow, Arizona
, TWA's interstate hub, the flight encountered severe weather and radio
ed 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
.
pilot who won some measure of fame in 1932 when he located and dropped food to a group of snowbound people in northern Arizona. Crew members on board were 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 Stanford University
) and Mr. M. H. Salisbury, a TWA pilot.
The aircraft was flying from San Francisco to Winslow which was a hub connecting TWA's transcontinental Los Angeles
-New York
route. It departed San Francisco in clear, overcast skies with a cloud ceiling between 6000 and 7000 ft (1,828.8 and 2,133.6 m), and had sufficient fuel to last until midnight.
As the flight neared the Tehachapi Mountains
near Bakersfield, California
, Captain 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 conditions. Graves replied that he planned to divert to nearby Fresno due to the local weather conditions. At 9:28 PM, he requested a weather update, and this was his last transmission received by air traffic control.
, approximately 45 miles (72.4 km) northeast of Fresno, who observed the plane at 9:29 PM flying along the San Joaquin River
at an altitude of 500 feet (152.4 m). The search was concentrated in the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains to the east of Fresno.
The severe storms that lingered throughout the week hampered searches for the missing aircraft. Pelting rain and heavy winds prevented the use of aircraft in the search, forcing searchers to rely on automobile
s, which were eminently unsuited for the rugged mountain terrain. Harold Bromley, the Fresno inspector for the Bureau of Aeronautics
, told reporters that the "visibility in the Fresno area was practically zero" as a result of the downpour.
The general search involved both TWA and government officials, who drove to Fresno from San Francisco and Los Angeles to aid in the search.
As days passed, Transcontinental & Western Air grew increasingly desperate to find the aircraft, and eventually offered a $1,000 reward ($ by today's standards) to anyone who could locate the aircraft.
offices in Fresno claiming that the missing aircraft had been found. The telephoned message said that the plane had been found approximately 20 miles from Fresno with "several passengers injured but everybody alive," as later reported in the Ogden Standard Examiner.
Upon investigation, however, the message turned out to be a hoax, as the plane had not been found. An outraged TWA spokesman denounced the message to be "one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perpetrated." Officials at United Airlines offices in both Fresno and San Francisco denied that their employees had been the ones to call in the hoax.
, and discovered the wreckage of the aircraft on June 12, 1938. The crash site was located 32 miles (51.5 km) northwest of the area searched by investigators.
The aircraft was partially buried in the snow of Buena Vista Crest within Yosemite National Park, the bodies of all nine occupants still inside.
Investigators speculated that the aircraft had been blown off course while attempting to divert to Fresno and had subsequently lost radio contact. It appeared that the plane had sheared off the tops of pine trees while in a steep bank
and crashed into the mountain 200 feet (61 m) below the summit.
, the coroner
ruled that the cause of death of the victims of the flight was "accidental."
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
Douglas DC-2
Douglas DC-2
The Douglas DC-2 was a 14-seat, twin-engine airliner produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Corporation starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247...
on March 1, 1938. During a scheduled passenger flight from San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to Winslow, Arizona
Winslow, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 9,520 people, 2,754 households, and 1,991 families residing in the city. The population density was 773.1 people per square mile . There were 3,198 housing units at an average density of 259.7 per square mile...
, TWA's interstate hub, the flight encountered severe weather and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
ed their intention to land in nearby Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
. The aircraft never arrived, and was found three months later having crashed into a mountain in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
.
Flight
The aircraft was a twin-engined Douglas Aircraft Corporation DC-2 piloted by Captain John Graves, a former Army Air CorpsUnited States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
pilot who won some measure of fame in 1932 when he located and dropped food to a group of snowbound people in northern Arizona. Crew members on board were 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 Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
) and Mr. M. H. Salisbury, a TWA pilot.
The aircraft was flying from San Francisco to Winslow which was a hub connecting TWA's transcontinental Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
route. It departed San Francisco in clear, overcast skies with a cloud ceiling between 6000 and 7000 ft (1,828.8 and 2,133.6 m), and had sufficient fuel to last until midnight.
Disappearance
Two hours after takeoff, the flight encountered a building weather front that developed into the most severe storm on the West Coast in 64 years. During the next four days, the storm caused more than 120 deaths and widespread flooding in Southern California.As the flight neared the Tehachapi Mountains
Tehachapi Mountains
The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...
near Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
, Captain Graves noticed ice forming on the wings. He advised air traffic controllers, who ordered him to divert to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
due to the deteriorating weather conditions. Graves replied that he planned to divert to nearby Fresno due to the local weather conditions. At 9:28 PM, he requested a weather update, and this was his last transmission received by air traffic control.
Search efforts
Officials based their search area on the reports of Mrs. C. G. Landry who was operating the Edison company power house on Huntington LakeHuntington Lake
Huntington Lake is a reservoir in Fresno County, California on Big Creek, located in the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 2,130 meters . Several smaller streams also flow into the lake and it receives additional water from the underground tunnels of Southern California Edison's Big Creek...
, approximately 45 miles (72.4 km) northeast of Fresno, who observed the plane at 9:29 PM flying along the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
at an altitude of 500 feet (152.4 m). The search was concentrated in the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains to the east of Fresno.
The severe storms that lingered throughout the week hampered searches for the missing aircraft. Pelting rain and heavy winds prevented the use of aircraft in the search, forcing searchers to rely on automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s, which were eminently unsuited for the rugged mountain terrain. Harold Bromley, the Fresno inspector for the Bureau of Aeronautics
Bureau of Aeronautics
The Bureau of Aeronautics was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for Naval Aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" for the design, procurement, and support of Naval aircraft and related systems...
, told reporters that the "visibility in the Fresno area was practically zero" as a result of the downpour.
The general search involved both TWA and government officials, who drove to Fresno from San Francisco and Los Angeles to aid in the search.
As days passed, Transcontinental & Western Air grew increasingly desperate to find the aircraft, and eventually offered a $1,000 reward ($ by today's standards) to anyone who could locate the aircraft.
Hoax call
On March 2, 1938, the day after the flight's disappearance, Transcontinental & Western Air headquarters told reporters that it had received a message purporting to be from the United AirlinesUnited Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
offices in Fresno claiming that the missing aircraft had been found. The telephoned message said that the plane had been found approximately 20 miles from Fresno with "several passengers injured but everybody alive," as later reported in the Ogden Standard Examiner.
Upon investigation, however, the message turned out to be a hoax, as the plane had not been found. An outraged TWA spokesman denounced the message to be "one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perpetrated." 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
Three months after the crash, the aircraft had still not been located. 23-year-old H.O. Collier of Fresno began a personal search for the missing plane after interviewing numerous TWA personnel and studying charts of the flight path. In early June, Collier hiked into the snowy terrain northeast of WawonaWawona
The three-masted, fore-and-aft schooner Wawona sailed from 1897 to 1947 as a lumber carrier and fishing vessel based in Puget Sound. The schooner was built in near Eureka, California on Humboldt Bay by Hans Ditlev Bendixsen , who was one of the most important West Coast shipbuilders of the late...
, and discovered the wreckage of the aircraft on June 12, 1938. The crash site was located 32 miles (51.5 km) northwest of the area searched by investigators.
The aircraft was partially buried in the snow of Buena Vista Crest within Yosemite National Park, the bodies of all nine occupants still inside.
Investigators speculated that the aircraft had been blown off course while attempting to divert to Fresno and had subsequently lost radio contact. It appeared that the plane had sheared off the tops of pine trees while in a steep bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
and crashed into the mountain 200 feet (61 m) below the summit.
Investigation
On June 13, 1938, after the discovery of the crash site, Daniel C. Roper, the Secretary of Commerce, named a special board to investigate the crash. As the members of the inquisitorial board made their way cross-country from Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
ruled that the cause of death of the victims of the flight was "accidental."
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving airliners in the United States
- Trans World AirlinesTrans World AirlinesTrans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
External links
- Video footage of recovery efforts, eFootage.com, Accessed: May 24, 2009.