Veterans

Arrow Air Flight 1285

Accident
Date: 12 December 1985
Summary: Icing conditions and pilot error as a result of weight and reference speed miscalculations leading to collision with trees
Site Gander International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada
Coordinates: 48°54′43″N 54°34′27″W

Aircraft
Aircraft type: McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63CF
Operator: Arrow Air
IATA flight No.: MF1285R
Registration: N950JW
Flight origin: Cairo International Airport, Egypt
Stopover: Cologne Bonn Airport, West Germany
Last stopover: Gander International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada
Destination: Campbell Army Airfield, Kentucky, United States
Occupants: 256
Passengers: 248
Crew: 8
Fatalities: 256
Survivors: 0

Arrow Air Flight 1285R was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 jetliner that operated as an international charter flight carrying U.S. troops from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander, Newfoundland.

On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander en route to Fort Campbell, the aircraft stalled, crashed, and burned about half a mile from the runway, killing all 248 passengers and 8 crew members on board. As of 2021, it is the deadliest aviation accident to occur on Canadian soil and the second-deadliest of any accident involving a DC-8, behind the crash of Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 six years later.

The accident was investigated by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB), which determined that the probable cause of the crash was the aircraft's unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift condition, most likely due to ice contamination on the wings' leading edges and upper surfaces, as well as underestimated onboard weight. A minority report stated that the accident could have been caused by an onboard explosion of unknown origin prior to impact, with one of these dissenting investigators later telling a United States congressional committee that it was impossible for a thin layer of ice to bring down the aircraft. The dissenting report led to delays in changes to de-icing procedures, and a thin layer of ice caused the deadly crash of Air Ontario Flight 1363 in Canada in 1989.

In response to lack of confidence in accident investigations by the CASB, the Government of Canada shut the board down in 1990, replacing it with an independent, multi-modal investigative agency – the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

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Area's worst air disaster killed 74 soldiers, 3 crew



The 1961 crash of the propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation just a mile southeast of a runway remains the Richmond area's deadliest aviation disaster.

Frank Green Nov 8, 2011 Updated Sep 19, 2019

Fifty years ago tonight, a chartered, four-engine airliner crashed in a marshy, wooded area near what was then called Byrd Field, killing 74 soldiers and three crew members.

The 1961 crash of the propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation — distinctive for its three tails — just a mile southeast of a runway remains the Richmond area's deadliest aviation disaster.

At the time, it was among the worst single-aircraft disaster in U.S. history and the deadliest in state history.

Just two people, crew members, escaped from the burning airplane. A Civil Aeronautics Board accident report in 1962 said only one safety belt in the cabin remained buckled and that many passengers appeared to have attempted to escape.

There were few, if any, traumatic injuries caused by the crash, and those who died may have been conscious for minutes before succumbing to carbon-monoxide poisoning.

At least a small number of passengers would have been expected to escape, said the CAB, but they could have been prevented by dense smoke, heat, jammed or blocked exits and other factors.

"It was quite a tragic affair," said Tony Dowd, then the 37-year-old manager of what is now Richmond International Airport. "We couldn't get any equipment or personnel actually to the site because of the ground conditions."

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Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8

Accident
Date: November 8, 1961
Summary: Pilot error
Site: Henrico County, near Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates: 37°28′39.56″N 77°18′1.96″W

Aircraft type: Lockheed L-049E Constellation
Operator: Imperial Airlines
Registration: N2737A
Occupants: 79
Passengers: 74
Crew: 5
Fatalities: 77
Injuries: 2
Survivors: 2

Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 was a charter flight by the United States Army to transport new recruits to Columbia, South Carolina for training. On November 8, 1961, the aircraft crashed as it attempted to land at Byrd Field, near Richmond, Virginia. This was the second deadliest accident in American history for a single civilian aircraft.

The accident was investigated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which attributed the cause to numerous errors committed by the flight crew, as well as poor management and improper maintenance by the airline. The CAB concluded that the "flight crew was not capable of performing the function or assuming the responsibility for the job they presumed to do."

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