Braniff International Airways - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• 26 March 1939 – Braniff Trip 1, operating from Chicago to Brownsville, Texas, crashed on takeoff from Oklahoma City Municipal Air Terminal, today known as Will Rogers World Airport. Early that March morning, the aircraft, a Douglas DC-2, tail number NC13727, suffered an explosion in the left engine that, in turn, caused the engine's cowling to open up, creating serious drag on the left wing. The flight's captain, Claude Seaton, struggled to keep the aircraft stable while turning back for an emergency landing at Oklahoma City. The aircraft's compromised wing hit an embankment on the section line road forming the airport's western boundary and cartwheeled across the ground. Seaton ordered the aircraft's fuel to be cut off, but in vain, as, when the plane came to rest on the ground, fuel came in contact with the still-hot engines and caught fire. Seaton and First Officer Malcolm Wallace were thrown free on impact and survived with serious injuries, injuries which ended the flying career of Seaton. Flight attendant Louise Zarr and seven passengers died in the post-crash fire.
• 29 September 1959 - Braniff Flight 542 crashed in Buffalo, Texas while en route from Houston to Dallas, and the crash resulted in the deaths of twenty-nine passengers and five crew members. The plane, registration number N9705C, was an 11-day-old Lockheed L-188 Electra. The Civil Aeronautics Board blamed the crash on metal fatigue due to the "whirl-mode" prop theory.
• 19 October 1959 - A Braniff Boeing 707 crashed in Arlington, Washington. Although the aircraft was not officially a Braniff aircraft, it was due for delivery the very next day and was already wearing the Braniff logo and colors. The aircraft, a Boeing 707-227, registration number N7071, was on an orientation flight with two Boeing test pilots, and two Braniff Captains on board. The Braniff pilot performed a series of Dutch Rolls; however, one of the rolls was executed beyond the maximum bank angle restrictions, resulting in a loss of control. The aircraft recovered from the maneuver, but, during the recovery, three of the engines (number 1, 2 and 4) were torn off. The aircraft crashed along the Stillaguamish River northeast of Arlington. The two pilots in the cockpit did not survive the emergency landing, the other two pilots who were sitting in the tail section did. A bare patch in the trees along the north bank of the river still exists today.
• 6 August 1966 - Braniff Flight 250 crashed in Falls City, Nebraska, en route to Omaha, Nebraska, from Kansas City, Missouri. Thirty-eight passengers and four crew members were killed in the crash. The plane was a BAC One-Eleven 203, registration number N1553.
• 3 May 1968 - Braniff Flight 352 crashed in Dawson, Texas. Like Flight 542 nine years earlier, it was en route to Dallas, from Houston. Seventy-nine passengers and five crew members were killed in the crash. The plane was a Lockheed Electra II, registration number N9707C. Two other Braniff employees, a cargo secretary, and a Braniff construction engineer were among the dead.
• 2 July 1971 - Braniff Flight 14, a B-707 flying from Acapulco to New York with 102 passengers and a crew of eight was hijacked on approach to a refueling stop in San Antonio, Texas. The ordeal lasted 43 hours across Texas, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and ended happily in Argentina. After a refueling stop in Monterrey, the hijackers released flight attendants Jeanette Eatman Crepps, Iris Kay Williams and Anita Bankert Mayer and all of the passengers. The remaining crew of Captain Dale Bessant, Bill Wallace, Phillip Wray and flight attendants Ernestina Garcia and Margaret Susan Harris flew on to Lima. The hijackers, a U.S. Navy deserter named Robert Jackson and his Guatemalan lady friend, demanded and got a ransom of $100,000 and wanted to go to Algeria. The Bessant crew was released, one by one, and replaced by a volunteer crew of Captain Al Schroeder, Bill Mizell, Bob Williams and Navigater Ken McWhorter. Two Lima based employees, Delia Arizola and Clorinda Ortoneda volunteered toboard the flight. Delia had been retired 6 months but still offered her services. The B-707 left for Rio and planned to refuel but the hijacker forced them on to Buenos Aires. The long flight and fatigue took its toll and the hijackers gave up. It was a record for long distance hijacking, over 7,500 miles.
• 12 January 1972 - Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727, was hijacked as it departed Houston bound for Dallas. The lone armed hijacker, Billy Gene Hurst, Jr., allowed all 94 passengers to deplane after landing at Dallas Love Field but continued to hold the seven crew members hostage, demanding to fly to South America and asking for US $2 million, parachutes, and jungle survival gear, among other items. After a six-hour standoff, the entire crew secretly fled while Hurst was distracted examining the contents of a package delivered by Dallas police. Police officers stormed the craft shortly afterwards and arrested Hurst without serious incident.