Chicago, IL Plane Crashes On Landing, Dec 1940

TWO MORE DEAD BRING TOTAL TO 8 IN CRASH.

PLANE CRASH AT CHICAGO FATAL TO 8 PERSONS.

UNITED AIR LINES "MAIN LINER" CRASHED LAST NIGHT DURING BAD WEATHER.

Chicago, Dec. 5. -- (UP) -- Eight persons were dead and a ninth dying today as the Civil Aeronautics Board, the coroner and company officials attempted to learn what caused a 12-ton United Air Lines "Main Liner" to crash last night within two blockd of the municipal airport.
Investigation was focused on weather conditions at the time of the accident. Although the ship carried de-icing equipment, its crumpled wings and tail surfaces bore a quarter inch of ice. In descending from 5,000 feet for a landing, the plane flew for seven minutes in "icing conditions," according to ALLEN BONNALIE, assistant to the United Air Lines vice-president of operations.
Too much ice breaks the smooth flow of air over airplane wing surfaces and causes it to be less maneuverable, especially in turns. The position in which the plane struck and crashed indicated the pilot was banking sharply to come into the airport's northwest runway when the craft lost flying speed, clipped a house and garage and struck facing directly opposite to the projected landing course.
A United Air Lines spokesman said however, that preliminary inviestigation indicated the plane dropped off on one wing when it stalled for lack of flying speed during its mormal glide toward the runway. The wing clipped the house and caused the ship to "cartwheel," he said. He doubted that the pilot was turning close to the runway.
United officials said "evidence indicates that immediately after the accident there was only a minor amount of ice on the airplane." They said a quarter-inch of ice should not have prevented a safe landing and pointed out other liners landed a few minutes, earlier in the same conditions. One of the problems being investigated was to determine the speed of the ill fated plane as it came in for a landing and whether landing was attempted close to the ground at low speed.
Four passengers and the two pilots died in the impact. Two more passengers died of injuries at the hospital this morning. MISS. FLORENCE LITTLE, the 22-year-old stewardess, was in an extremely critical condition and not expected to live. Seven passengers suffered serious so critical injuries.
The latest two to die were CHARLES W. MANVILLE, 38, Cleveland, sales director for the National Refining Co., and KELLER MELTON, 40, Chicago, Federal Works Administration engineer. They died at Holy Cross Hospital.
The giant ship, a twin-motored Douglas DC-3 carrying 13 passengers and three crew members, suddenly lost altitude as it approached the fied from its regular New York run, ripped through a network of pwer lines and plunged in an alley after tearing of a corner from a small house.
Airport attendants, sensing trouble after ordering the plane to fly on instrument amid heavy mist, placed the crash at 5:48 p.m. (CST). They rushed fire-fighting and rescue equipment to the accident site and had extinguished the flames and pulled all occupants from the plane within a few minutes.
Several pilots at the airport said ice forming on the wings and rudders may have been an important contribution to the crash. Air line officials withheld comment on the cause, but employes said "bad weather" was a factor.
Among the dead was WILBERT J. AUSTIN, 64, of Cleveland, internatinally known authority on factory construction and management. He was head of the Austin Engineer Company, which has subsidaries in California and Great Britain.
The dead:
The crew:
Capt. PHIL SCOTT, 34, Riverside, Ill., the pilot.
1st Officer GEORGE YOUNG, 30, Oak Park, Ill., the co-pilot.
Passengers:
LEE HANELINE, Chicago divisional superintendent of reservations for United.
WILBERT J. AUSTIN.
MISS JANE SELBY, Chicago, employe of the Curtis Candy Company.
S. W. MOORE, Lakewood, O., engineer in the war department.
CHARLES WESLEY MANVILLE, 38, Cleveland, general sales manager of National Refining Co.
KELLER MELTON, 40, Chicago, Safety engineer for the Federal Works Administration.
The injured, all but two in critical condition at Holy Cross Hospital:
MISS FLORENCE LITTLE, 22, Chicago, stewardess, basal skull fracture; condition "very critical."
THEODORE F. PAULSEN, 40, Willette, Ill., Montgomery Ward Co., employe, skull fracture, leg fracture, nose fracture.
R. G. WOODBURY, 41, (55. E. Madison, New York) vice president Textile Bank, scalp wounds, leg fracture.
LEO WOLINS, 37, Chicago, building contractor, fractured collar bone, blood transfusion.
RICHARD PETTIT, 26, Bostonian, Calif., war department attorney, spinal fracture.
GEORGE HAIG, 50, Chicago, Industrial Motion Pictures' executive, arm fracture, face lacerations.
PAUL RYAN, 40, Cleveland, president National Refining Co., arm fracture, leg fracture,head injuries.
O. M. FREDERICK, 52, Olmstead, O., army engineer stationed at Cleveland, face lacerations.
FREDERICK and RYAN were not considered seriously injured, the hospital said. Last rites of the Catholic church were administered MISS LITTLE, whose condition was said to be more grave than the others.
United Air Lines and the Civil Aeronautics Authority ordered investigators to the scene and a police guard was thrown about the wreckage pending their arrival. FRANK CALDWELL, chief of the CAA's accident investigating section, left Washington last night by train. Air line officials said the investigation was scheduled for 2 p.m. today. It was the second fatal accident in the 10-year history of the line's Cleveland-Chicago flight.
Airport radio operators were in communication with the plane as it approached the field from the south. Just seconds before the crash, the control tower reported seeing the plane's lights "flicker" and then the ship was lost. The pilot had been flying blind, by instrument, because of a 1,000 foot ceiling, the radio operators said. They said snow did not impair vision below that altitude.
The plane again was sighted as it broke through the mist preparatory to landing. Then the motor began sputtering, a witness said, and the plane slipped rapidly toward ground. It tore through a cordon of power lines and threw the field and surrounding area into darkness.
A crash was heard as the giant craft smashed the corner from the top of a two story frame house. The ship's left wing and both motors were pulled free by the impact.
The motorless plane, with fuselage and one wing intact, plummeted to ground in an alley way against a garage and bounced over on its topside. Flames ate at the nose of the ship, but did not reach the fuselage and none of the occupants was burned.
Persons in the neighborhood who heard the crash rushed to the plane. They pulled the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot from the cabin and attendants from the airport assisted in removing the other occupants. Four were dead and MISS SELBY and MOORE died at the hospital.
Witnesses said the front of the plane had been pushed back against the fuselage, one wing -- the left -- was torn away and the right wing twisted. There was little fire damage, this witness said. Police covered the wreckage with a tarpaulin after the occupants were carried away.

Oelwein Daily Register Iowa 1940-12-05

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!