 The wreckage of Flight 349 in February 2002. | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 30, 1959 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
| Site | Bucks Elbow Mountain, Albemarle County, Virginia, U.S. (near Crozet, Virginia, U.S.) 38°06′15″N 78°43′53″W / 38.10417°N 78.73139°W / 38.10417; -78.73139 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
| Aircraft name | Buckeye Pacemaker |
| Operator | Piedmont Airlines |
| Registration | N55V |
| Flight origin | Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. |
| Destination | Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport |
| Occupants | 27 |
| Passengers | 24 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 26 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Survivors | 1 (Ernest P. Bradley) |
On October 30, 1959, Piedmont Airlines Flight 349, a Douglas DC-3, crashed on Bucks Elbow Mountain near Crozet, Virginia, killing the crew of three and all but one of its twenty-four passengers. The sole survivor was seriously injured and lay on the ground near the wreckage, still strapped in his seat.
Accident
The aircraft was on an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport inbound from Washington National Airport. While performing an inbound turn, the aircraft crashed into Bucks Elbow Mountain at 2,600 feet (790 m).
Investigation
The subsequent investigation determined the cause of the accident to be:
A navigational omission which resulted in a lateral course error that was not detected and corrected through precision instrument flying procedures. A contributing factor to the accident may have been pre-occupation of the captain resulting from mental stress.
Opposing view
The Air Line Pilots Association conducted its own investigation and came to a very different conclusion. Rather than missing the one turn on their flight, the pilot and co-pilot, according to ALPA, may have been led astray by faulty radio beacons. The ALPA report, citing numerous instances of an intermittent signal at the beacon for the Charlottesville airport, found that the beacon for a private field in Hagerstown, Maryland, could have overridden and caused the collision with the mountain.
Plane
The accident aircraft, named Buckeye Pacemaker, was registered as N55V and had construction number 20447. The aircraft had previously flown with Meteor Air Transport as N53593 and was sold to Piedmont Airlines in December 1956.
See also
References
- Kebabjian, Richard. "Accident Details". planecrashinfo.com.
- ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Douglas C-47A-90-DL (DC-3) N55V Bucks Elbow Mountain, VA". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
- Spencer, Hawes (October 8, 2009). "Alone on a mountain: the true story of Flight 349". The Hook. Charlottesville. Archived from the original on October 11, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
External links
- Final accident report from the Civil Aeronautics Board
- "Alone on a mountain: the true story of Flight 349" Archived October 5, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
- Radio interview with the first person to reach the scene.
- Page about Phil Bradley, the sole survivor of the crash. Archived December 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- "One Man's Anguish". Time. May 5, 1961. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. - Time Magazine article about the pilot.
| Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959 (1959) | |
|---|---|
| Jan 8 Southeast Airlines Flight 308Jan 11 Lufthansa Flight 502Jan 16 Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205Jan 18 Aeroflot Flight 205Feb 3 American Airlines Flight 320Feb 3 Clear Lake crash ("The Day the Music Died")Feb 3 Pan Am Flight 115Feb 17 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crashApr 23 Air Charter Turkey crashMay 12 Capital Airlines Flight 75Jun 22 Pan Am Clipper PanamaJun 26 TWA Flight 891Jun 30 Okinawa F-100 crashAug 15 American Airlines Flight 514Aug 19 Transair Douglas Dakota accidentSep 24 TAI Flight 307Sep 29 Braniff Flight 542Oct 19 1959 Arlington Boeing 707 crashOct 23 Aeroflot Flight 200Oct 30 Piedmont Airlines Flight 349Nov 16 National Airlines Flight 967Nov 16 Aeroflot Flight 315Nov 21 Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202Dec 1 Allegheny Airlines Flight 371Dec 4 San Diego F3H crash | |
| 1958 ◄ ► 1960 |
- Albemarle County, Virginia
- Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
- Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain
- Airliner accidents and incidents in Virginia
- Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1959
- Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-3
- Piedmont Airlines accidents and incidents
- 1959 in Virginia
- October 1959 events in the United States