ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 342207
| Date: | Tuesday 29 November 1938 |
| Time: | 05:25 |
| Type: |  Douglas DC-3A-191 |
| Owner/operator: | United Airlines |
| Registration: | NC16066 |
| MSN: | 1906 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1937 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 1,2 km off Point Reyes, CA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Medford-Jackson County Airport, OR (MFR/KMFR) |
| Oakland Municipal Airport, CA (OAK/KOAK) | |
| Investigating agency: | CAB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
A Douglas DC-3A passenger plane, operating as United Air Lines Trip 6, was involved in a ditching accident off Point Reyes, CA, USA. One pilot and one passenger were rescued. The other five occupants were killed.
Trip 6 was a scheduled service from Seattle, WA to San Diego, CA, with several intermediate stops. The airplane took off from Medford at 12:03 at night. En route from Medford to Oakland the crew failed to establish their precise position and ran out of fuel over sea. At 05:03 the Point Reyes lighthouse was sighted. The plane circled the lighthouse twice, dropping a flare each time. At 05:25 fuel was exhausted and the captain carried out a wheels-up ditching.
Passengers and crew immediately climbed on the top of the aircraft, through the emergency hatch in the pilot's cockpit. The aircraft rode the swells easily until the surf carried it shoreward, where it was severely battered and subsequently destroyed by the waves and rocks.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "Failure of the pilot to definitely establish the position of the aircraft through standard orientation procedures within a reasonable time after intersecting a leg of the Oakland radio range at 3:17 AM, and of company flight dispatchers, charged with the responsibilities of directing the operation of the trip, to properly safeguard the flight, resulting in forced landing of the aircraft at sea due to exhausted fuel supply."
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
The Crash of United Air Lines Trip #6
CAB Report
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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