Braniff International Airways Flight 352

Parts of this article (those related to the discovery and publication of the lost cockpit voice recording in April 2023) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2023)

1968 aviation accident

Braniff International Airways Flight 352
Accident
N9707C, the Lockheed L-188 Electra involved in the accident
Date	May 3, 1968
Summary	Flight into thunderstorm leading to in-flight breakup
Site	Navarro County, near Dawson, Texas 31°53′55″N 96°41′50″W / 31.89861°N 96.69722°W / 31.89861; -96.69722
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed L-188A Electra
Operator	Braniff International Airways
Registration	N9707C
Flight origin	William P. Hobby Airport, Houston, Texas
Destination	Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas
Occupants	85
Passengers	80
Crew	5
Fatalities	85
Survivors	0

Braniff International Airways Flight 352 was a scheduled domestic flight from William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, United States, to Dallas Love Field in Dallas; on May 3, 1968, a Lockheed L-188A Electra flying on the route, registration N9707C, broke up in midair and crashed near Dawson, Texas, after flying into a severe thunderstorm. It was carrying five crew and 80 passengers; there were no survivors. Among those killed was Texas state representative Joseph Lockridge, the first black man to represent Dallas County in the Texas Legislature. Investigation revealed that the accident was caused by the captain's decision to penetrate an area of heavy weather followed by a structural over-stress and failure of the airframe while attempting recovery from loss of control during a steep 180-degree turn executed in an attempt to escape the weather.

Flight history

Earlier in the day, at 12:40 local time, the crew of the accident flight (consisting of 45-year-old captain John R. Phillips, 32-year-old first officer John F. Foster, and 28-year-old flight engineer Donald W. Crossland), flew from Dallas to Houston through the same area they were scheduled to fly later on. On that previous flight, a few hours before, they encountered no significant weather along the route. Once they arrived in Houston, there was no record of the crew being briefed about the updated weather by any Weather Bureau or Federal Aviation Administration personnel, or by any Braniff dispatcher or weather office. They did, however, receive hardcopy information about all relevant en route and terminal weather reports and forecasts.

At 16:11, the crew departed William P. Hobby Airport as Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Electra four-engine turboprop, en route to Dallas Love Field. About 25 minutes into the flight, while cruising at FL200 (about 20,000 feet (6,100 m) above mean sea level), the aircraft approached an area of severe thunderstorm activity. The crew requested to descend to 15,000 feet (4,570 m) and deviate to the west. Air Traffic Control (ATC) informed the crew that other flights in the area were deviating to the east and suggested they also deviate east, but the Electra crew insisted that the west seemed OK to them on their onboard weather radar: "Three fifty two does it look good (better). On our scope here it looks like to the uh a little just a little bit to the west would do us real fine."

ATC then cleared the flight to descend to 14,000 feet (4,270 m) and deviate to the west as they requested. The westerly deviation would have been shorter and quicker than an easterly one.

At 16:44 the crew requested and ATC cleared the flight to descend to 5,000 feet (1,520 m). The crew asked ATC if there were any reports of hail in the area, to which ATC replied: "No, you're the closest one that's ever come to it yet ... I haven't been able to, anybody to, well I haven't tried really to get anybody to go through it, they've all deviated around to the east."

At 16:47 the flight encountered an area of severe weather including hail and requested a 180-degree right turn, which ATC immediately approved. While turning to the right in severe turbulence, the bank angle was increased to over 90 degrees, and the nose pitched down to approximately 40 degrees. As the crew attempted to recover from the ensuing steep diving turn, the aircraft experienced acceleration forces of over 4 g, which caused the right wing to fail. The aircraft then broke up at an altitude of 6,750 feet (2,060 m) and crashed in flames into the ground at about 16:48, killing all 85 persons on board.

Witnesses said the four-engine turboprop Electra—a modified version of the trouble-plagued Lockheed aircraft that had experienced two wing failure accidents in 1959 and 1960—had blown up before it hit the ground and pieces "fishtailed" down through sheets of rain. The FBI, however, did not suspect foul play. Cloyce Floyd, postmaster of the little town of Dawson, about one mile (1.6 km) from the crash scene, said he was driving along in the rain when he saw an "orange flash." He continued, "I looked over to the left and I could see this red ball of fire hanging back there about the size of the sun. From the glare of the fire I could see the fuselage sort of fishtailing down. Then it hit and exploded."

A Mexia firefighter stated that "The wreckage was scattered all over the place." Rescue workers clogged the muddy roads for hours carrying bodies and parts of bodies from the eerie scene lit by several Klieg lights.

Investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the accident. The flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) were recovered from the wreckage with their data mostly intact, and the cockpit audio was reconstructed and transcribed.

The NTSB correlated the cockpit conversations with the ATC communications transcript and noted that it was the first officer, at the captain's request, who asked ATC if they had received reports of hail in the area and received the response from ATC that they hadn't because other aircraft had "all deviated around to the east." At that point, according to the CVR transcript, the captain advised the first officer: "No, don't talk to him too much. I'm hearing his conversation on this. He's trying to get us to admit (we're makin) big mistake coming through here."

Shortly thereafter, the first officer stated: "... it looks worse to me over there." The crew then requested and received clearance from ATC for the 180-degree turn. The turn became extremely steep, with a bank of over 90 degrees and a nose pitch-down of 40 degrees. As they were trying to recover from the turn, the FDR indicated a peak acceleration of 4.3 g, which the NTSB concluded caused overstress to the airframe and resulted in its breakup.

On June 19, 1969, the NTSB issued its final report, which included the following statement: "Probable Cause: The stressing of the aircraft structure beyond its ultimate strength during an attempted recovery from an unusual attitude induced by turbulence associated with a thunderstorm. The operation in the turbulence resulted from a decision to penetrate an area of known severe weather."

References

^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
^ "Braniff Airways Inc., Lockheed L-188, N9707C, near Dawson, Texas, May 3, 1968" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. 1969-06-19. NTSB/AAR-69-03. - Alternate URL at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University.
"84 Killed in Crash of Braniff Electra in Texas; 4-Engine Turboprop Airplane Falls in an Electric Storm Eyewitness Reports That It Exploded While in Air 84 Dead in Crash of Braniff Airliner". The New York Times. United Press International. 1968-05-04. pp. 1, 24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
Other possible interpretations for the parenthesized words which were garbled in the audio: "we'd made the" or "we made a"

External links

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 (1968)
Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight 1668Jan 21 Thule Air Base B-52 crashFeb 7 Indian Air Force An-12 crashFeb 16 Civil Air Transport Flight 10Feb 29 Aeroflot Flight 15Mar 6 Air France Flight 212Mar 9 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crashMar 24 Aer Lingus Flight 712Mar 27 Yuri Gagarin's MiG-15 crashMar 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 965Apr 5 Hawker Hunter Tower Bridge incidentApr 8 BOAC Flight 712Apr 20 South African Airways Flight 228May 3 Braniff Flight 352May 12 Kham Duc C-130 shootdownMay 22 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841May 28 Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892Jul 1 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253AJul 3 BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845Jul 23 El Al Flight 426 hijackingAug 14 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417Sep 11 Air France Flight 1611Oct 25 Northeast Airlines Flight 946Nov 22 Japan Air Lines Flight 2Nov 24 Pan Am Flight 281Dec 2 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55Dec 12 Pan Am Flight 217Dec 24 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736Dec 26 El Al Flight 253Dec 26 Pan Am Flight 799Dec 27 North Central Airlines Flight 458Dec 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982Dec 31 MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750
1967 ◄ ► 1969

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 (1968)

Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight 1668Jan 21 Thule Air Base B-52 crashFeb 7 Indian Air Force An-12 crashFeb 16 Civil Air Transport Flight 10Feb 29 Aeroflot Flight 15Mar 6 Air France Flight 212Mar 9 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crashMar 24 Aer Lingus Flight 712Mar 27 Yuri Gagarin's MiG-15 crashMar 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 965Apr 5 Hawker Hunter Tower Bridge incidentApr 8 BOAC Flight 712Apr 20 South African Airways Flight 228May 3 Braniff Flight 352May 12 Kham Duc C-130 shootdownMay 22 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841May 28 Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892Jul 1 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253AJul 3 BKS Air Transport Flight C.6845Jul 23 El Al Flight 426 hijackingAug 14 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417Sep 11 Air France Flight 1611Oct 25 Northeast Airlines Flight 946Nov 22 Japan Air Lines Flight 2Nov 24 Pan Am Flight 281Dec 2 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55Dec 12 Pan Am Flight 217Dec 24 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736Dec 26 El Al Flight 253Dec 26 Pan Am Flight 799Dec 27 North Central Airlines Flight 458Dec 27 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982Dec 31 MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750

1967 ◄ ► 1969

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 (January 6 1960) Capital Airlines Flight 20 (January 18 1960) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 (March 1960) Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 (July 1960) World Airways Flight 830 (September 1960)* Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 (October 4 1960) Cal Poly football team (October 29 1960) New York mid-air collision (December 1960)
1961	Goldsboro B-52 crash (January 24 1961) American Airlines Flight 1502 (January 28 1961) Yuba City B-52 crash (March 1961) United Air Lines Flight 859 (July 11 1961) Alaska Airlines Flight 779 (July 21 1961) TWA Flight 529 (September 1 1961) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 (September 17 1961) Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 (November 8 1961) Cincinnati Zantop DC-4 crash (November 14 1961)
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 (March 1962) Continental Airlines Flight 11 (May 1962) Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 (July 1962) United Air Lines Flight 297 (November 23 1962) Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 (November 30 1962)
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 (January 1963) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 (February 1963) Camden PA-24 (March 1963) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 (June 1963) Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 (July 1963) Pan Am Flight 214 (December 1963)
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 crash (January 1964) Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 (February 1964) Paradise Airlines Flight 901A (March 1964) Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 (May 1964) United Air Lines Flight 823 (July 1964) Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 (November 1964) Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 (December 1964)
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita (January 1965) Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 (February 1965) Pan Am Flight 843 (June 1965) Continental Airlines Flight 12 (July 1 1965) Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 (July 23 1965) United Air Lines Flight 389 (August 1965) American Airlines Flight 383 (November 8 1965) United Air Lines Flight 227 (November 11 1965) Carmel mid-air collision (December 1965)
1966	NASA T-38 crash (February 1966) American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D (April 1966) Braniff International Airways Flight 250 (August 1966) West Coast Airlines Flight 956 (October 1966)
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 (March 5 1967) TWA Flight 553 (March 9 1967) West Coast Airlines Flight 720 (March 10 1967) Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 (March 30 1967) Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 (June 1967) Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 (July 1967) Lake Erie skydiving disaster (August 1967) TWA Flight 159 (November 6 1967) X-15 Flight 3-65-97 (November 15 1967) TWA Flight 128 (November 20 1967)
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 (March 1968) Braniff International Airways Flight 352 (May 3 1968) Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 (May 22 1968) Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 (August 1968) Northeast Airlines Flight 946 (October 1968) Japan Air Lines Flight 2 (November 22 1968) Pan Am Flight 281 (November 24 1968) Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 (December 2 1968) Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 (December 24 1968) Pan Am Flight 799 (December 26 1968) Ozark Air Lines Flight 982 (December 27 1968) North Central Airlines Flight 458 (December 27 1968)
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 (January 6 1969) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 (January 13 1969) United Air Lines Flight 266 (January 18 1969) Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 (February 1969) Prinair Flight 277 (March 5 1969)* Delta Air Lines Flight 821 (March 25 1969) TWA Flight 5787 (July 1969) Newton Cessna 172 crash (August 1969) Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 (September 1969) Mohawk Airlines Flight 411 (November 1969)
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place in a U.S. territory. 1950–1959 ◄ 1960–1969 ► 1970–1979

Categories:

Misplaced Pages