California Polytechnic State University football team plane crash
Arctic Pacific Curtiss C-46 Commando · Loss of control on take-off
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
- 48
- Survivors
- 26
- 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
- 26
- 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
- Unknown
Curtiss C-46 Commando
- Aircraft type
- Curtiss C-46
- 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
- N1244N
- Operator
- Arctic Pacific
- Onboard fatalities
- 22
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On October 29, 1960, a Curtiss C-46 passenger aircraft crashed shortly after take-off near Toledo, Ohio, U.S. The World War II-era aircraft was carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs college football team home from a game against the Bowling Green Falcons. Of the 48 people on board, 22 were killed, including both pilots, 16 players, a student manager, and a Cal Poly football booster.
Accident
At the time of the crash, Bowling Green State had been the easternmost opposing school to play football against Cal Poly.
The weather at the airport steadily deteriorated in the hours before takeoff. Visibility at 7 p.m. was 3/4-mile (1.2 km); 1/16-mile (100 m) at 8:37 p.m.; and zero at the time of the accident, 22:02 EST.
Meanwhile, the Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft was loaded until it was 2,000 lb above its maximum certificated gross takeoff weight of 47,100 lb. Upon takeoff, the left engine partially lost power.
An investigation of the accident concluded that there was a partial power loss in the left engine before the crash.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB)'s final report said, "The accident was due to loss of control during a premature lift-off. Contributing factors were the overweight aircraft, weather conditions, and partial loss of power in the left engine."
Text from the Wikipedia article “California Polytechnic State University football team plane crash” (revision 1340518736, 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: California Polytechnic State University football team plane crash
- Revision
- 1340518736 · 2026-02-26 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5018202
- 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 "California Polytechnic State University football team plane crash" (page 15403789, revision 1340518736)
- 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
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- 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.