FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

Northeast Airlines Flight 258

15 Aug 1958 · Near Nantucket Memorial Airport, Massachusetts

Convair CV-240 · Pilot error

From LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK)

Report a problem

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
25 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
9
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
9
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

Convair CV-240

Aircraft type
Convair CV-240
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
N90670
Onboard fatalities
25
Route
From LaGuardia Airport (LGA)To Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK)

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

From the Wikipedia article

Northeast Airlines Flight 258 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York's La Guardia Airport that crashed while trying to land at Nantucket Memorial Airport, Massachusetts, at 11:34 on the night of August 15, 1958. All three crew-members and 20 of the 31 passengers were killed, among them Gordon Dean, former chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

The accident aircraft, a Convair 240 operated by Northeast Airlines, commenced a non-precision VOR approach to the uncontrolled airport despite the fact that visibility, at 1/8 mi in fog, was below the legal minimum required for such an approach. The aircraft flew into the ground 1/3 mi short of the Runway 24 threshold and some 600 ft to the right of the extended center-line. A post-crash fire ensued; most survivors as well as many of the dead were ejected from the wreckage.

A Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigation found that the captain of the aircraft failed to acknowledge transmissions warning him of the deteriorating weather conditions in the minutes before the crash. The CAB also criticised Northeast's training and operational procedures, noting deficiencies in aircrew proficiency, recordkeeping and monitoring of company radio frequencies.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Northeast Airlines Flight 258” (revision 1339306287, 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: Northeast Airlines Flight 258
Article
Northeast Airlines Flight 258
Revision
1339306287 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q17015830
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 "Northeast Airlines Flight 258" (page 39932091, revision 1339306287)
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.