Eastern Air Lines Flight 663

Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 was an American domestic passenger flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Atlanta, Georgia, with scheduled stopovers at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York; Richmond, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Greenville, South Carolina. On the night of February 8, 1965, the aircraft serving the flight, a Douglas DC-7, crashed near Jones Beach State Park, New York, just after taking off from JFK Airport. All 79 passengers and five crew aboard died.

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigation determined that evasive maneuvers undertaken by Flight 663 to avoid an oncoming Pan Am Boeing 707 caused the pilot to suffer spatial disorientation and lose control of the aircraft. The accident is the third-worst accident involving a DC-7.

Flight history

The Douglas DC-7 serving Flight 663 made its first flight in 1958 and subsequently accumulated a total of 18,500 hours of flight time. It was piloted by Captain Frederick R. Carson, 41, who had been employed by Eastern Air Lines for 19 years and who had accumulated 12,607 hours of flight time. His co-pilot, First Officer Edward R. Dunn, 41, a nine-year veteran of Eastern Airlines, had 8,550 hours of flight time. The flight engineer was Douglas C. Mitchell, 24, with two years' employment and 407 pilot hours, and 141 hours of flight engineer time. All had passed proficiency checks with the DC-7B aircraft.

The flight from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, to John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, proceeded normally. Flight 663 departed JFK at 6:20 p.m. EST on an instrument flight rules (IFR) clearance to Byrd Field (now Richmond International Airport), in Richmond, Virginia. Take-off proceeded normally, and the airport control tower prepared to hand over control to the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) on Long Island, noting that Flight 663 was executing a "Dutch seven departure", a routine takeoff procedure that required a series of turns over the Atlantic Ocean to avoid flying over New York City. The New York ARTCC responded with the information that Pan American World Airways (PA) Flight 212, a Boeing 707, was descending to 4000 ft in the same airspace.

Though the control tower responded that EA 663 was at a higher altitude than PA 212, it was, in fact, lower. Subsequently, the control tower radioed the Pan Am flight that there was traffic in his airspace at 11 o'clock, six miles away traveling southeast of Pan Am's position, climbing above 3000 ft. Pan Am 212 acknowledged. Air traffic control then radioed Flight 663 a similar advisory: at 2 o'clock, five miles away traveling, below Flight 663's position. In reality, the traffic, Pan Am 212, was above Flight 663, descending from 5000 ft. Captain Carson acknowledged that he saw the traffic, that he was beginning to turn into the Dutch seven departure, and signed off, saying, "good night".

Flight 663's radioed "good night" at 6:25 p.m. was the last transmission received from the flight.

Crash

The night of February 8 was dark, with no visible moon or stars and no visible horizon. As the two airliners approached similar positions, their pilots had no points of reference with which to determine the actual separation distance or position. Flight 663's departure turn, and Pan Am's subsequent turn left to its assigned heading, had placed the two aircraft on an apparent collision course. The Boeing rolled right and initiated a descent in an attempt to avoid a collision. In response, Eastern 663 began an extreme right turn to pass safely. The captain of Pan Am 212 later estimated that the two aircraft had passed between 200 and 500 ft of each other, while the first officer estimated that the distance was only 200 to 300 ft.

Flight 663 could not recover from its unusually steep bank and plunged into the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, where it exploded with bright orange flames. The Pan American 707 was the first to relay news of the crash, as it was receiving permission to land. Air Canada Flight 627, which had departed a few minutes before Flight 663, also radioed news of an explosion in the water.

After the initial explosion, the wrecked aircraft sank to the bottom in 75 ft of water. Numerous air crews, including Pan Am 212, Air Canada 627, and Braniff Airlines Flight 5, radioed ATC controllers in the area with news of an explosion. The aircraft broke up upon impact and was destroyed. All five crew members and 79 passengers died on impact.