1956 aviation incident
United States Air Force Flight 441/13 was a Douglas C-118A Liftmaster, which crashed on July 13, 1956, near the McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The accident resulted in the deaths of 46 people and was the first fatal accident involving the Douglas Liftmaster.
Aircraft.
The incident involved a Douglas C-118A Liftmaster (Douglas Liftmaster – the military version of the civilian Douglas DC-6) from the 29th Military Airlift Squadron, with the tail number 53-3301 (or 53-3301A, construction number 44672, serial number 639), which had been delivered to the US Army on December 12, 1955.
Crew.
The aircraft crew consisted of 10 members:
Accident.
The Aircraft with the 53-3301 registration was performing transport flight 441/13 to transfer a group of military personnel to England. The cabin carried 41 American aviators, 9 foreign officers, and 6 civilians, including two children—a boy and a girl—traveling with their mother, making a total of 56 passengers. A thunderstorm with hail and numerous lightning strikes was ongoing at the airbase and in its vicinity when the "Liftmaster," with 66 people on board, took off from the runway in a southern direction. However, the crew did not make further contact after takeoff. As later recounted by one of the passenger-pilots, Tom Hamrick, the plane began to gain altitude but suddenly dropped into an "air pocket." The pilots tried to level the aircraft, but at 15:37, it crashed into a pine forest three miles from the runway. After crashing through the trees for approximately , the plane disintegrated, scattering debris over a distance of half to one mile. No fire occurred at the crash site.
At 16:00, when the air traffic controllers were unable to contact the aircraft, they waited an additional two hours, unsure whether it had actually taken off, before issuing a distress signal. The crash was witnessed by soldiers from Fort Dix, who rushed to the scene, but mud and severe weather conditions significantly hampered their progress. Some passengers, having freed themselves from the wreckage, made their way to the road, where they were spotted by military police, who then reported the incident.
Rescue operations were complicated by the difficult terrain and the ongoing thunderstorm, so initially, the injured were evacuated on foot. Later, the path to the aircraft was cleared using bulldozers, and a total of 250 people, including medical personnel, participated in the rescue efforts. Forty-three people died at the scene, two others died later that day in hospitals, and one more died subsequently. The total death toll was 46 people: 8 crew members (only the flight engineer survived from the flight crew) and 38 passengers, including two women and both children. According to the autopsy report, the victims died from fractures, though only six had their seatbelts break. Many survivors were unable to unfasten their seatbelts on their own and remained seated until rescuers arrived.
Cause.
The cause of the crash was determined to be a wind shear during the thunderstorm, which led to a loss of altitude.
References.
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