Viscount Crash In U.S. Kills 48

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 15

Viscount Crash In U.S. Kills 48

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 9 p.m.) HOLDCROFT (Virginia), January 19. A Viscount airliner crashed and burned about 11 p.m. yesterday in a fog-shrouded Virginia swamp, killing all 44 passengers and the crew of four. Two hours later the wreckage was still blazing fiercely and police said they had not been able to approach it to try and recover bodies. The treacherous boggy land made the use of fire-fighting equipment impossible.

The turbo-prop, British-built plane came down close to Sandy Gut, a tributary of the Chickahominy river near Holdcroft, about 30 miles south-east of Richmond, the Virginia State capital. It was a Capital Airlines craft, flying from Chicago to Norfolk, Virginia, via Washington, D.C. The thick fog had closed many

airports in Virginia, but the one at Norfolk was open.

The air control traffic centre in Washington said it was “definitely instrument weather” when the plane took off from there, with a 600 ft ceiling and visibility of about five miles. It was to fly by instrument flight rules to Norfolk.

Bits of the plane were found several hundred yards from the flaming wreckage. Suitcases and other luggage were scattered in an area around the tail section, along with a large number of aluminium cooking utensils—some still in the cases in which they had been shipped. Police said the top of the fuselage appeared to have been ripped off. Mrs Alvin Avery, of Holdcroft, said she had heard a plane in trouble.

“The motor was acting up. rushing like, then it would cut down, rush up again and then cut down,” Mrs Avery said. “Then I heard a thud. It sounded odd. like thunder, only it didn’t come from the sky. It seemed to come from the ground.” Police said they had made a search within a radius of 500 yards of the plane, but that no survivors or bodies were discovered. Air traffic control in Washington said the plane’s last radio contact was a routine check-in over Tappahannock. Virginia, about midway between Washington and Norfolk. There was no indication then that anything was wrong.

Last night’s crash was the second major airline disaster in the United States within a fortnight, and the second in Virginia in less than three months.

On January 6 a DC-6B owned by National Airlines crashed near Bolivia, North Carolina. All 34 people aboard were killed.

Last October 30, a Piedmont Airlines plane smashed into the side of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville, Virginia, and 26 of the 27 people aboard died.