Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710
Encyclopedia
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Electra
, disintegrated in-flight and crashed near Cannelton
, Indiana
(10 miles east of Tell City
, Indiana
) on March 17, 1960. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew members. There were no survivors.
with a stop at Chicago Midway Airport
. Radio contact with the Indianapolis Control Center was made at approximately 3:00 pm local time. About 15 minutes later, witnesses reported seeing the airplane break into two pieces with the right wing falling as one piece and the remainder of the craft plunging to earth near Tell City in southern Indiana.
At the time, investigators organized by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) worked on three major theories:
—That a bomber blew up the plane and its passengers and crew members as they passed over southern Indiana on a Chicago-to-Miami flight.
—That violent air turbulence could have destroyed the craft, the first Electra purchased by Northwest and in service only seven months. Such turbulence was reported over southern Indiana at about the time of the crash.
—That the plane disintegrated through "metal fatigue" which has caused other crashes of high-speed airliners recently. The crash was the third Electra disaster in a little more than a year and the third unexplained accident in four months. It came within days of the Washington hearings on the death of 34 persons in a National Airlines plane crash
near Bolivia, North Carolina
(that disaster was later discovered to have been due to a bomb).
"Obviously, this plane broke up in the air," CAB spokesman Edward Slattery said at the time. "It is too early to tell the cause of the tragedy, but we will investigate all possibilities, including a bomb." (Edwardsville
Examiner, March 19, 1960)
The New York Times reported that at 5:44 P.M., an hour and a half after news of the crash in the snow-covered Indiana-Kentucky border country, an anonymous caller told the Chicago police that a bomb had been placed aboard a plane at Midway Airport. The police searched the airport, but found nothing and said that they were convinced the call was a prank. The operator said she thought the caller was a young teenager.
The craft's fuselage plunged into an Ohio River country farm and disintegrated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
sent agents to the scene to determine whether there was any violation of Federal law. Such an investigation would include the possibility of sabotage. State Police Sgt. Joe O'Brien said that the plane was last heard from over Scotland, Indiana
, about 37 miles (59.5 km) from the crash site. He said the pilot, Capt. Edgar LaParle, had reported rumble and the weather was very muggy and cloudy.
So much wreckage rained over a wide area, as the plane came apart in the air, that it was first believed that two planes had collided. However, the Federal Aviation Agency and the State Police said that all the pieces they could find were from one plane — Northwest's Lockheed Electra Flight 710. A wing and two engines of the wrecked turboprop were found about five miles (8 km) from the place where the plane's fuselage hit. Almost nothing was left of the craft. Hours after the crash, a column of blue-gray smoke still rose from the crater, about 25 ft (7.6 m) deep and 40 ft (12.2 m) wide.
Among the victims were Judge John A. Sharbaro of Chicago, 71-year-old jurist who helped prosecute Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb for the "crime of the century" murder of little Bobby Franks in 1924; the wife and three children of Morris Chalfen
, producer of the Holiday on Ice
skating shows (they were flying from their Minneapolis home to a Florida vacation); Masami Nakamura, 43, a Tokyo police superintendent touring the United States; Chiyoki Ikeda
, 39, a CIA training commander; and Mrs. Andy Frain of Chicago, mother of six and wife of the nation's top expert on controlling crowds at such gatherings as the World Series and presidential conventions.
In an ironic postscript, a grief-stricken husband and father of four of the plane crash victims almost followed his loved ones in violent death, a day after the Tell City disaster. Morris C. Chalfen, of Minneapolis, was among the 73 persons buffeted about a Northwest Airlines
Stratocruiser when it dived 300 ft (91.4 m) to avoid crashing into two National Guard jets. "Chalfen's wife and three children were killed Thursday when another Northwest Airliner disintegrated in the air over Tell City, Ind. Northwest officials here said the near-collision occurred while the airliner was flying over Lansing, Mich." (Edwardsville Examiner, March 19, 1960)
NASA
, Boeing
and Lockheed
engineers determined that the probable cause for the accident was in-flight separation of the right wing while cruising at 18000 ft (5,486.4 m) due to flutter caused by unexplained reduced stiffness of the engine mounts. This was subsequently defined as "whirl mode." Six months earlier, a Braniff International Airways
L-188 Electra disintegrated over Buffalo, Texas
at 15000 ft (4,572 m), killing all on board. This second similar crash moved the Federal Aviation Administration
to immediately issue a reduced cruise speed directive while investigators tried to determine the cause of the fatal crashes.
Club raised funds for a memorial at the site of the 1960 crash. Dedicated in 1961, the Kiwanis Electra Memorial marks the site. It is located on Millstone Road, which may be reached via Indiana highways 66 and 166, eight miles (13 km) east of Cannelton, Indiana.
Cannelton newspaper editor and civic booster Bob Cummings wrote the words which are inscribed on the memorial along with the names and symbols of the religious faiths of those who died aboard the plane. The inscription reads: "This memorial, dedicated to the memory of 63 persons who died in an airplane crash at this location, March 17, 1960, was erected by public subscription in the hope that such tragedies will be eliminated."
Lockheed L-188 Electra
The Lockheed Model 188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. First flying in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner produced in the United States. Initial sales were good, but after two fatal crashes which prompted an expensive modification program to fix a design...
, disintegrated in-flight and crashed near Cannelton
Cannelton, Indiana
Cannelton is a city in Troy Township, Perry County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,209 at the 2000 census. Cannelton, which is the smallest incorporated city in the state, was formerly the county seat of Perry County until the seat was relocated to Tell City...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
(10 miles east of Tell City
Tell City, Indiana
Tell City is a city in Troy Township, Perry County, Indiana, along the Ohio River, Indiana's southern border. The population was 7,272 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Perry County.-History:...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
) on March 17, 1960. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew members. There were no survivors.
Crash and causes
Flight 710 was a regularly scheduled flight departing Minneapolis-St. Paul to MiamiMiami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
with a stop at Chicago Midway Airport
Midway Airport
Chicago Midway International Airport , also known simply as Midway Airport or Midway, is an airport in Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's southwest side, eight miles from Chicago's Loop...
. Radio contact with the Indianapolis Control Center was made at approximately 3:00 pm local time. About 15 minutes later, witnesses reported seeing the airplane break into two pieces with the right wing falling as one piece and the remainder of the craft plunging to earth near Tell City in southern Indiana.
At the time, investigators organized by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) worked on three major theories:
—That a bomber blew up the plane and its passengers and crew members as they passed over southern Indiana on a Chicago-to-Miami flight.
—That violent air turbulence could have destroyed the craft, the first Electra purchased by Northwest and in service only seven months. Such turbulence was reported over southern Indiana at about the time of the crash.
—That the plane disintegrated through "metal fatigue" which has caused other crashes of high-speed airliners recently. The crash was the third Electra disaster in a little more than a year and the third unexplained accident in four months. It came within days of the Washington hearings on the death of 34 persons in a National Airlines plane crash
National Airlines Flight 2511
National Airlines Flight 2511, registration N8225H, was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft which exploded over Bolivia, North Carolina en route from New York International Airport, New York City, New York, to Miami, Florida on January 6, 1960...
near Bolivia, North Carolina
Bolivia, North Carolina
Bolivia is a town in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 148 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Brunswick County, and is named after the South American nation of the same name....
(that disaster was later discovered to have been due to a bomb).
"Obviously, this plane broke up in the air," CAB spokesman Edward Slattery said at the time. "It is too early to tell the cause of the tragedy, but we will investigate all possibilities, including a bomb." (Edwardsville
Edwardsville, Indiana
Edwardsville is an unincorporated community in Georgetown Township, Floyd County, Indiana....
Examiner, March 19, 1960)
The New York Times reported that at 5:44 P.M., an hour and a half after news of the crash in the snow-covered Indiana-Kentucky border country, an anonymous caller told the Chicago police that a bomb had been placed aboard a plane at Midway Airport. The police searched the airport, but found nothing and said that they were convinced the call was a prank. The operator said she thought the caller was a young teenager.
The craft's fuselage plunged into an Ohio River country farm and disintegrated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
sent agents to the scene to determine whether there was any violation of Federal law. Such an investigation would include the possibility of sabotage. State Police Sgt. Joe O'Brien said that the plane was last heard from over Scotland, Indiana
Scotland, Indiana
Scotland is an unincorporated town in Taylor Township, Greene County, Indiana....
, about 37 miles (59.5 km) from the crash site. He said the pilot, Capt. Edgar LaParle, had reported rumble and the weather was very muggy and cloudy.
So much wreckage rained over a wide area, as the plane came apart in the air, that it was first believed that two planes had collided. However, the Federal Aviation Agency and the State Police said that all the pieces they could find were from one plane — Northwest's Lockheed Electra Flight 710. A wing and two engines of the wrecked turboprop were found about five miles (8 km) from the place where the plane's fuselage hit. Almost nothing was left of the craft. Hours after the crash, a column of blue-gray smoke still rose from the crater, about 25 ft (7.6 m) deep and 40 ft (12.2 m) wide.
Among the victims were Judge John A. Sharbaro of Chicago, 71-year-old jurist who helped prosecute Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb for the "crime of the century" murder of little Bobby Franks in 1924; the wife and three children of Morris Chalfen
Morris Chalfen
Morris Chalfen was a sports entertainment promoter. He founded the Holiday On Ice show, and later purchased and relocated a near-extinct National Basketball League franchise which became the Los Angeles Lakers....
, producer of the Holiday on Ice
Holiday on Ice
Holiday on Ice is an ice show currently produced by Joop van den Ende's Stage Entertainment Group with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
skating shows (they were flying from their Minneapolis home to a Florida vacation); Masami Nakamura, 43, a Tokyo police superintendent touring the United States; Chiyoki Ikeda
Chiyoki Ikeda
Chiyoki Ikeda was listed in the CIA Memorial Wall on May 14, 1997. Ikeda had possessed dual citizenship, but chose to renounce his Japanese citizenship in September 1940.-Work in the CIA:...
, 39, a CIA training commander; and Mrs. Andy Frain of Chicago, mother of six and wife of the nation's top expert on controlling crowds at such gatherings as the World Series and presidential conventions.
In an ironic postscript, a grief-stricken husband and father of four of the plane crash victims almost followed his loved ones in violent death, a day after the Tell City disaster. Morris C. Chalfen, of Minneapolis, was among the 73 persons buffeted about a Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
Stratocruiser when it dived 300 ft (91.4 m) to avoid crashing into two National Guard jets. "Chalfen's wife and three children were killed Thursday when another Northwest Airliner disintegrated in the air over Tell City, Ind. Northwest officials here said the near-collision occurred while the airliner was flying over Lansing, Mich." (Edwardsville Examiner, March 19, 1960)
NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
and Lockheed
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
engineers determined that the probable cause for the accident was in-flight separation of the right wing while cruising at 18000 ft (5,486.4 m) due to flutter caused by unexplained reduced stiffness of the engine mounts. This was subsequently defined as "whirl mode." Six months earlier, a Braniff International Airways
Braniff International Airways
Braniff International Airways was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982, primarily in the midwestern and southwestern U.S., South America, Panama, and in its later years also Asia and Europe...
L-188 Electra disintegrated over Buffalo, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
at 15000 ft (4,572 m), killing all on board. This second similar crash moved the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
to immediately issue a reduced cruise speed directive while investigators tried to determine the cause of the fatal crashes.
Kiwanis Electra Memorial
The citizens of Perry County and the Cannelton KiwanisKiwanis
Kiwanis International is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Current membership is 240,000 members in 7,700 clubs in 80 nations...
Club raised funds for a memorial at the site of the 1960 crash. Dedicated in 1961, the Kiwanis Electra Memorial marks the site. It is located on Millstone Road, which may be reached via Indiana highways 66 and 166, eight miles (13 km) east of Cannelton, Indiana.
Cannelton newspaper editor and civic booster Bob Cummings wrote the words which are inscribed on the memorial along with the names and symbols of the religious faiths of those who died aboard the plane. The inscription reads: "This memorial, dedicated to the memory of 63 persons who died in an airplane crash at this location, March 17, 1960, was erected by public subscription in the hope that such tragedies will be eliminated."