BOSTON PLANE CRASH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29342, 22 October 1960, Page 16

BOSTON PLANE CRASH

“No Proof Yet Of Cause” (N.Z. Press Association — Copyright) WASHINGTON, October 19. Investigators have found no conclusive evidence that an impact of thousands of birds caused one or more engines to fail on a Lockheed Electra that crashed at Boston on October 4, United Press International reported. Examination of the four turbo-prop engines is still in progress. The largest foreign object found in the engines up to now was a bird feather about one inch long. Inspections also disclosed microscopic stains or smears, some of which were revealed by laboratory analysis to be bird remains. The director of the Federal Aviatioik Agency, Mr E. Quesada, has said that the impact with a large flock of migrating starlings apparently contributed to the crash and may have caused at least one engine to “flame out.”

The U.P.I. sources confirmed that one engine definitely failed shortly after take-off from Boston’s Logan International Airport, but one of them added: “A single engine failure on an Electra could not account for this accident.” Sixty-two persons died in the crash. It was also revealed that 97 per cent, of the wreckage had been recovered, with no indication that structural failure was involved.