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United Air Lines Flight 34

27 Dec 1936 · Rice Canyon, Los Angeles County, California, United States

United Airlines Boeing 247D · Pilot error

From San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Los Angeles, California, United States

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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
12 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
12
Survivors
0
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

Boeing 247D

Aircraft type
Boeing 247
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
NC13355
Onboard fatalities
12
Route
From San Francisco International Airport (SFO)To Los Angeles, California, United States

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

United Air Lines Flight 34 was a scheduled flight departing from Mills Field Municipal Airport in San Francisco, California, United States, to Los Angeles, California, United States, on December 27, 1936. At 07:36 Pacific time, the co-pilot requested the UAL localizer beacon at Burbank be turned on. The company radio requested aircraft position, to which the co-pilot replied, "just a minute." The aircraft crashed at the head of Rice Canyon (near Newhall, California) at 7:38 am, killing all 12 passengers and crew. The probable cause was found to be "an error on the part of the pilot for attempting to fly through Newhall pass at an altitude lower than the surrounding mountains without first determining by radio the existing weather".

Text from the Wikipedia article “United Air Lines Flight 34” (revision 1364967144, 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: United Air Lines Flight 34
Article
United Air Lines Flight 34
Revision
1364967144 · 2026-07-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q7887369
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 "United Air Lines Flight 34" (page 27241550, revision 1364967144)
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.