JET, AIRLINER COLLIDE; 49 KILLED.

UAL DC-7 CRASHES IN NEVADA.

Las Vegas, Nev., April 21 (AP) -- An Air Force jet fighter and a New York-bound airliner collided high over the southern Nevada desert today and crashed in flames. All 47 persons aboard the airliner were killed.
The jet plane was an F100F from nearby Nellis AF Base, a pilot training center. The craft's two occupants, on an instrument training mission, rode the plane to their deaths.
The collision was at 21,000 feet over a hilly desert area 15 miles southwest of here.
Spurt Of Flame.
Witnesses said there was a spurt of flame as the United Air Lines plane exploded and then went into a long death dive, trailing flames, black smoke and debris.
The DC7 was carrying 37 regular passengers, 5 airline employees and a crew of 5 from Los Angeles to New York via Denver, Kansas City and Washington.
It left Los Angeles at 7:30 a.m. and was due over this desert gambling resort at 8:31 a.m., although it was not scheduled to land here.
The crippled airliner crashed like a bomb.
A rescue party headed by sheriff's deputies reached the scene by mid-morning and reported all dead.
The scene is 9 1/2 miles south of Las Vegas' McCarran Field.
The jet came down three miles away from the airliner and over a hill. The Air Force said the bodies of both men were in the wreckage.
Heard Distress Call.
After the collision, Nellis AF Base, said its radio men heard one report from the jet: "Mayday" -- the aviator's distress call. There were a few other words, so garbled they were indistinguishable.
The radiomen said the speaker could have been saying "flameout" or "bailing out." A flameout is when a jet's engine quits.
Col. BRUCE HINTON, in charge of the training group, said he assumed it was a flameout because neither man parachuted.
HINTON said he does not know if the jet was on instruments at the time of the collision, but it could have been. If the fliers were on instruments, the one in the rear seat would have been hooded and the one in the front would have been the observer.
HINTON said: "Neither got clear. Neither used his chute. The airplane hit and went to pieces. We couldn't tell if they were trying to get out when it hit."
"A reported chute in the air was not connected to a pilot."
Asked Clearance.
The jet reported in by radio shortly before the Mayday call to obtain visual clearance to descend. It had been operating at 27,500 feet, he said.
The airliner had CAA clearance to fly to Denver at 21,000. It last reported in over Daggett, Calif., in the Mojave Desert west of Las Vegas. At that time it was at the assigned elevation.
The CAA and United Air Lines identified the crew members of the airliner as follows: Pilot, D. M. WARD; first officer, A. E. SOMMERS; flight engineer, C. E. WOOD and two stewardesses, PAULINE MURRAY of Watertown, Mass., who had been with the airline since 1957 and YVONNE PETERSON, 27, of Sidney, Mich., who went to work for United in 1954.

Albuquerque Tribune New Mexico 1958-04-21
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!