Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293
	N290 the Douglas DC-7 involved, photographed at Chicago O'Hare Int'l Airport in September 1959
Occurrence
Date	3 June 1963
Summary	Unknown
Site	Clarence Strait, WSW of Annette Island, Alaska ; 54.2138°N 133.857°W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-7C
Operator	Northwest Orient Airlines
Registration	N290
Flight origin	McChord Air Force Base, Washington, United States
Destination	Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, United States
Occupants	101
Passengers	95
Crew	6
Fatalities	101
Survivors	0

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 was an American military charter operated on 3 June 1963 by a Northwest Orient Airlines Douglas DC-7C registered N290 which crashed into the sea off the coast of Alaska. All 101 crew and passengers on board were killed.[1] It was the airline's deadliest disaster until the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 24 years later.

Accident

Flight 293 was chartered by the Military Air Transport Service of the United States Air Force to carry 95 servicemen and their families from McChord Air Force Base in Washington state to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska.[1] The DC-7 departed McChord at 07:52 Pacific Standard Time.[1] The last radio contact with the plane was at 10:06, when the crew requested a change of flight level.[1] When nothing more had been heard for more than an hour, a search for the aircraft was begun at 11:16.[1] It was not until 19:22 that floating debris was seen 182.5 miles (293.7 km) WSW of Annette Island, Alaska.

Approximately 1,500 pounds of wreckage was recovered, including life vests still encased in their plastic containers and extremely deformed seat frames.[2] None of the bodies of the crew or passengers were ever recovered.[2]

Investigation

With the wreckage under 8,000 feet of water, the Accident Review Board concluded that "Because of lack of evidence, the Board is unable to determine the probable cause of the accident."[3][4]

Northwest Airlines Flight 293 Incident (1962)

A Douglas DC-7C of Northwest Airlines, similar to the incident aircraft.

A similar accident occurred on October 22, 1962, that is, seven months before this disaster, while both incidents almost completely coincided in a number of details. Douglas DC-7CF of Northwest Airlines, but N285, operated exactly the same flight 293 from McChord Air Force Base to Elmendorf Air Base, and on board were 95 passengers and 7 crew members. The flight took place at an altitude of 20 thousand feet. Then, after 3 hours from the moment of takeoff, the second engine (internal left) suddenly lost thrust, after which the propeller of this engine developed a speed higher than the permissible one. In this situation, the pilots transferred the aircraft to a rapid descent, and then made a successful splashdown in Sitka Bay (Alaska), none of the 102 people on board died. According to the commission, the cause of the accident was a technical failure in the second engine. There is some possibility that one of the engines also failed on board the N290, after which the aircraft went out of control of the crew.

References

Notes

Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
"United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit - Irene Cox v Northwest Airlines, Inc". openjurist.org. 1967. p. 893. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
Aircraft Accident Report - Civil Aeronautics Board
"Cause Unknown: What brought down these five airplanes?", by Lester A. Reingold, Air & Space magazine (September 2010)

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[ASN-1] Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network

[openjurist-2] "United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit - Irene Cox v Northwest Airlines, Inc". openjurist.org. 1967. p. 893. Retrieved 2009-11-07.

[3] Aircraft Accident Report - Civil Aeronautics Board

[4] "Cause Unknown: What brought down these five airplanes?", by Lester A. Reingold, Air & Space magazine (September 2010)

Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 Capital Airlines Flight 20 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 World Airways Flight 830 Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 Cal Poly football team New York mid-air collision
1961	Goldsboro B-52 American Airlines Flight 1502 Yuba City B-52 United Air Lines Flight 859 Alaska Airlines Flight 779 TWA Flight 529 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 Continental Airlines Flight 11 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 United Air Lines Flight 297 Eastern Air Lines Flight 512
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 Camden PA-24 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 Pan Am Flight 214
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 Paradise Airlines Flight 901A Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 United Air Lines Flight 823 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 Pan Am Flight 843 Continental Airlines Flight 12 Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 United Air Lines Flight 389 American Airlines Flight 383 United Air Lines Flight 227 Carmel mid-air (Eastern 853, TWA 42)
1966	NASA T-38 American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D Braniff International Airways Flight 250 West Coast Airlines Flight 956
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 TWA Flight 553 West Coast Airlines Flight 720 Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 TWA Flight 159 X-15 Flight 3-65-97 TWA Flight 128
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 Braniff International Airways Flight 352 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 Northeast Airlines Flight 946 Japan Air Lines Flight 2 Pan Am Flight 281 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 Pan Am Flight 799 North Central Airlines Flight 458 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 United Air Lines Flight 266 Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 Prinair Flight 277 Delta Air Lines Flight 821 TWA Flight 5787 Newton Cessna 172 crash Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 Mohawk Airlines Flight 411
This list is incomplete.