Western Airlines - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• December 15, 1936: Seven died when a Western Air Express Boeing 247 crashed just below Hardy Ridge on Lone Peak near Salt Lake City, Utah. The major parts of the aircraft were hurled over the ridge and fell over a thousand feet into a basin below.
• January 12, 1937: Western Air Express Flight 7, a Boeing 247 flying from Salt Lake City to Burbank, crashed near Newhall, California, killing five of the 10 persons on board, including adventurer and documentary filmmaker Martin Johnson of Martin and Osa Johnson fame.
• December 15, 1942: A Western Airlines transport crashed near Fairfield, Utah, approximately 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah, on the way to Los Angeles, California. The plane took off at 1:05 a.m. and was reported missing approximately 15 minutes later. Of the 19 passengers and crew aboard, 17 died.
• December 24, 1946: Western Air Lines Flight 44 crashed into the Laguna Mountains while descending towards San Diego. The CAB investigation determined that the pilot misjudged his position relative to the mountains, and flew too low to clear terrain.
• April 20, 1953: Western Air Lines Flight 636, flying in the night, on the last leg of a Los Angeles-San Francisco-Oakland itinerary, descended below the prescribed minimum altitude of 500 ft and crashed into the waters of San Francisco Bay, killing eight of the ten people aboard the Douglas DC-6.
• June 3, 1972: Western Airlines Flight 701 from Los Angeles to Seattle was hijacked by Black Panthers Willie Roger Holder, a black Vietnam veteran, and Catherine Marie Kerkow. The hijackers claimed they had a bomb in an attache case and demanded $500,000. After allowing all 97 passengers to get off in San Francisco, they flew to Algeria where they were granted political asylum. Later, $488,000 of the ransom money was returned to US officials.
• October 31, 1979: Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashed while landing at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, killing 72. The crew landed the DC-10 on a closed runway and it impacted construction vehicles during the attempted go-around. The closed runway 26L was operationally lighted so that the workers could see what they were doing but this was denied by Mexican officials. This is not done in the US because it might make the crew believe the runway is open. Another factor was that the captain and co-pilot were known to have been in a contentious dispute throughout their month of flying together. This accident is taught as a CRM (Crew Resource Management) exercise in many airline training programs today.
• July 31, 1979: Western Airlines Flight 44 departed LAX via Denver and other intermediate stops and then mistakenly landed at Buffalo, Wyoming instead of Sheridan, Wyoming which was the intended destination. No injuries occurred and the only damage was to the tarmac at the airport which was not designed to support the weight of the Boeing 737-200 jetliner. The incident prompted a legal battle and subsequent landmark aviation ruling of Ferguson v. NTSB