Piedmont_Airlines_Flight_349 References

Piedmont Airlines Flight 349
	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
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, Ernest P. Bradley, was seriously injured and lay on the ground near the wreckage, still strapped in his seat.^[1]

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).^[2]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.

References

^ Kebabjian, Richard. "Accident Details". planecrashinfo.com.
^ ^a ^b 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.
"One Man's Anguish". Time. May 5, 1961. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. - Time Magazine article about the pilot.

[1] Kebabjian, Richard. "Accident Details". planecrashinfo.com.

[:0-2] Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Douglas C-47A-90-DL (DC-3) N55V Bucks Elbow Mountain, VA". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved September 7, 2019.

[3] 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.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1950s
1950	Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 Fairfield-Suisun Boeing B-29 crash
1951	National Airlines Flight 83 Cubana de Aviación Flight 493 United Air Lines Flight 610 United Air Lines Flight 615 Miami Airlines C-46 Continental Charters Flight 44-2
1952	American Airlines Flight 6780 National Airlines Flight 101 Pan Am Flight 526A American Airlines Flight 910 Mount Gannett C-124 crash Moses Lake C-124 crash
1953	National Airlines Flight 470 Delta Air Lines Flight 318 USMC R4Q NROTC crash American Airlines Flight 723 BCPA Flight 304
1955	Cincinnati mid-air collision TWA Flight 260 American Airlines Flight 711 Hawaii R6D-1 crash Pan Am Flight 845/26 MacArthur Airport United Airlines crash American Airlines Flight 476 United Air Lines Flight 409 United Air Lines Flight 629
1956	TWA Flight 400 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 Grand Canyon mid-air collision Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 304
1957	Pacoima mid-air collision Northeast Airlines Flight 823 Northeast Airlines Flight 285
1958	Capital Airlines Flight 67 Capital Airlines Flight 300 Westover Air Force Base KC-135 crash Northeast Airlines Flight 258
1959	Southeast Airlines Flight 308 American Airlines Flight 320 The Day the Music Died Pan Am Flight 115 Capital Airlines Flight 75 American Airlines Flight 514 Braniff International Airways Flight 542 Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 National Airlines Flight 967 Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 San Diego F3H crash
This list is incomplete.