TWA Flight 400
Trans World Airlines Martin 4-0-4 · Mechanical failure followed by pilot error
From Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 22 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 14
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Martin 4-0-4
- Aircraft type
- Martin 4
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N40403
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 22
- Route
- From Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)To Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On April 1, 1956, a Martin 4-0-4, registration #N40403, operating as TWA Flight 400, crashed on takeoff from Greater Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). Twenty-two of the 36 people aboard the aircraft, including one crewmember (Hostess Mary Jane Fanning), perished in the evening crash on Easter Sunday.
Flight 400 was to be an eastbound IFR flight from Pittsburgh to Newark International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey, with scheduled stops in eastern Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, Reading, and Allentown. On this particular flight, the first officer (Harlan V. Jesperson) was in the left seat, as he was being line-checked by the captain (Raymond F. McQuade); both pilots survived.
Investigation and cause
Cause
Probable cause of the crash has been determined as: "Uncoordinated emergency action in the very short time available to the crew, which produced an aircraft configuration with insurmountable drag".
Text from the Wikipedia article “TWA Flight 400” (revision 1339312948, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: TWA Flight 400
- Article
- TWA Flight 400
- Revision
- 1339312948 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7672514
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TWA Flight 400" (page 11307789, revision 1339312948)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.