ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 332291
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| Date: | Saturday 1 October 1966 |
| Time: | 20:10 |
| Type: |  Douglas DC-9-14 |
| Owner/operator: | West Coast Airlines |
| Registration: | N9101 |
| MSN: | 45794/52 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1966 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 164 hours |
| Engine model: | Pratt & Whitney JT8D-1 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 18 / Occupants: 18 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 9 km S of Wemme, OR -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Eugene Airport, OR (EUG/KEUG) |
| Portland International Airport, OR (PDX/KPDX) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
West Coast Flight 956 departed San Francisco (SFO) at 18:44 for a flight to Eugene (EUG), Portland (PDX) and Seattle (SEA). The brand new DC-9 aircraft, which had been delivered to West Coast Airlines just 2 weeks earlier, arrived at Eugene at 19:34 and took off again 18 minutes later. At 20:04 the crew were cleared to descend from the cruising altitude of FL140 to 9000 feet. While turning to heading 300deg, the aircraft descended below the clearance altitude and impacted the wooded eastern slope of Salmon Mountain at the 3830 feet level. The aircraft attitude was 30 degrees right bank, in a 3-4 degree climbing flight path on a heading of 265 degrees.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The descent of the aircraft below its clearance limit and below that of surrounding obstructing terrain, but the Board had been unable to determine the cause of such descent."
Accident investigation:
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Sources:
Location
Revision history:
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