1960 New York mid-air collision

On December 16, 1960, a United Air Lines Douglas DC-8 heading for Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City collided in midair with a TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending toward LaGuardia Airport. The Constellation crashed on Miller Field in Staten Island and the DC-8 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 aboard the two aircraft and six people on the ground. The accident was the world's deadliest aviation disaster at the time, and remains the deadliest accident (not including terrorist incidents) in the history of United Airlines.

The accident became known as the Park Slope plane crash or the Miller Field crash, named after the two sites where the aircraft landed. The accident was also the first hull loss and first fatal accident involving a Douglas DC-8.

Background

At 10:21 a.m. EST, United 826 advised ARINC radio that one of its VOR receivers was inoperative, and the message was relayed to United Air Lines maintenance. However, air-traffic control (ATC) was not informed that the aircraft had only one operational receiver, which presented difficulty for the pilots of flight 826 to identify the PRESTON intersection, beyond which it had not received clearance.

At 10:25 a.m., ATC issued a revised clearance for the flight to shorten its route to the PRESTON holding point (near Laurence Harbor, New Jersey) by 12 mi. That clearance included holding instructions (a standard "racetrack" holding pattern) for Flight 826 when it arrived at the PRESTON intersection. Flight 826 was expected to reduce its speed before reaching PRESTON to a standard holding speed of 210 kn or lower. However, the aircraft was estimated to be traveling at 301 kn when it collided with the TWA plane, several miles beyond the PRESTON clearance limit.

During the investigation, United Air Lines claimed that the Colts Neck VOR beacon was unreliable. PRESTON was the point where airway V123—the 050-radial off the Robbinsville VOR—crossed the Solberg 120-degree radial and the Colts Neck 346-degree radial. However, the Civil Aeronautics Board's final report found no problem with the Colts Neck VOR.

The prevailing conditions were light rain and fog, which had been preceded by snowfall.

Collision and ground impacts

According to the DC-8's flight data recorder, the aircraft was 12 mi off course, and for 81 seconds it descended at 3600 ft/min while slowing from more than 400 kn to 301 kn at the time of the collision.

One of the DC-8's starboard engines struck the Constellation just ahead of its wings, tearing apart a portion of the fuselage. The Constellation entered a dive, with debris continuing to fall as it disintegrated during its spiral to the ground.

The initial impact tore the DC-8's engine from its pylon. Having lost one engine and a large part of the right wing, the DC-8 remained airborne for another 90 seconds.

The DC-8 crashed into the Park Slope section of Brooklyn at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, scattering wreckage and setting fire to ten brownstone apartment buildings, the Pillar of Fire Church, the McCaddin Funeral Home, a Chinese laundry and a delicatessen. Six people on the ground were killed.

The crash left the remains of the DC-8 pointing southeast toward a large open field at Prospect Park, blocks from its crash site. An occupant in one of the affected apartment buildings said that his family survived because they were in the only room of their apartment that was not destroyed. The crash left a trench covering most of the length of the middle of Sterling Place. Witnesses thought that a bomb had detonated or that a building's boiler had exploded.

The TWA plane crashed onto the northwest corner of Miller Field at, with some sections of the aircraft landing in New York Harbor. At least one passenger fell into a tree before the wreckage hit the ground.

There was no radio contact with traffic controllers from either plane after the collision, although LaGuardia had begun tracking an incoming, fast-moving, unidentified plane from Preston toward the LaGuardia "Flatbush" outer marker.