Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231

Coordinates: 41°12'53"N 74°5'40"W


A Northwest Airlines Boeing 727-200, similar to the accident aircraft.

Accident
Date: December 1, 1974
Summary: Stalled due to atmospheric icing, pilot error, and instrument failure
Site: Haverstraw, New York, U.S.; (near Stony Point); 41°12'53"N 74°5'40"W
Aircraft
Aircraft type: Boeing 727-251
Operator: Northwest Orient Airlines
Registration: N274US
Flight origin: John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City
Destination: Buffalo International Airport
Occupants: 3
Passengers: 0
Crew: 3
Fatalities: 3
Survivors: 0


Location in New York

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231 was the fatal crash of a Boeing 727 in the eastern United States on December 1, 1974 in Harriman State Park near Stony Point, New York, just north of the New York City area. The Northwest Airlines 727 had been chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts professional football team in Buffalo in western New York.

All three crew members on board died when the aircraft struck the ground following a stall and rapid descent caused by the crew's reaction to erroneous airspeed readings caused by atmospheric icing. The icing occurred due to failure to turn on the pitot tube heating at the start of the flight. This was one of two Boeing 727s to crash in the eastern U.S. that day; the other was TWA Flight 514 in northern Virginia, northwest of Dulles airport (250 miles (400 km) to the southwest).

Aircraft

The Boeing 727-251, registration N274US, was certificated and maintained in accordance with FAA regulations and requirements at the time of the crash.

Accident

The flight was chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts in Buffalo after the aircraft originally earmarked to transport the team was grounded by a snowstorm in Detroit. On that Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, the eastern half of the U.S. experienced severe weather, with high winds, snow, and rain.

The aircraft was loaded with 48,500 pounds (22,000 kg) of Jet A fuel, with a gross weight of 147,000 pounds (67,000 kg) at takeoff.

Flight 6231 departed New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 19:14 EST (UTC-5) for a ferry flight to Buffalo. As the craft climbed past 16,000 feet (4,900 m), the overspeed warning horn sounded, followed 10 seconds later by a stick shaker stall warning. The aircraft leveled at 24,800 feet (7,600 m) in a 30° nose-up attitude, until it started to descend out of control in a right-hand spin, reaching a vertical acceleration of +5g due to the aircraft being in a tight nosedown spiral with a bank angle between 70° and 80°.

At 19:24:42, Flight 6231 issued a "Mayday" call to New York air traffic control, and stated "...we're out of control, descending through 20,000 feet (6,100 m)." After giving interim altitude clearance, at 19:25:21, the controller inquired as to what the problem was, and a crewmember responded once more, "We're descending through 12,000 feet (3,700 m), we're in a stall." The crew of Flight 6231 attempted to make one final transmission 19 seconds prior to impact, but it was not received.

At about 3,500 feet (1,100 m), a large portion of the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer separated due to the high G-forces, making recovery impossible. Flight 6231 struck the ground in a slightly nose down and right wing-down attitude twelve minutes after take-off, at 19:25:57; there were no witnesses to the crash.

The aircraft had descended from 24,000 feet (7,300 m) altitude to ground level at 1,090 feet (330 m) above sea level in 83 seconds. The crash occurred about 3.2 nautical miles (5.9 km; 3.7 mi) west of Thiells, New York. Police described the crash site as a heavily wooded marshy area and accessibility was hampered by winter weather conditions including wind and a rain-snow mix. Despite the 727's full load of fuel, there was no explosion or fire when the plane hit the ground, and there was no post-crash fire, although police described the crash site having a "strong smell of jet fuel."

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