Standard Air Lines Flight 897R

Standard Air Lines Flight 897R was a domestic passenger flight between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Burbank, California. At 7:43am on July 12, 1949, the flight, operated by a Curtiss C-46E (registered N79978), crashed in Chatsworth, California, upon approach to Burbank, killing 35 of the 48 passengers and crew on board.

The flight

The Standard Air Lines aircraft was on a multi-stop flight from New York to Long Beach, California, via Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque and Burbank. It departed on the penultimate segment from Albuquerque Municipal Airport at 4:24am for a flight to the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California (today called Burbank Airport). At 7:36am the aircraft was cleared to land at Burbank. After that, there was no other communication from the flight.

Crash

The aircraft was flying in level flight with the gear down, on an ILS approach to Hollywood-Lockheed Air Terminal (today called Burbank Airport) on a Tuesday morning. The aircraft descended in patchy fog below the minimum altitude permitted and its right wing tip struck the side of a hill at 1,890 feet above sea level, pulling the plane around 90 degrees. The C-46 hit the ground and bounced 300 feet into the air before crashing in Chatsworth, CA, some 430 feet below the crest of Santa Susana Pass, just north of the Chatsworth Reservoir.

It was originally reported that a fist fight had broken out between two male passengers, however survivors later stated that the fight was not the cause of the crash but instead it was based on pilot error. The CAB report stated, "This accident was caused solely by the pilot voluntarily going below the prescribed minimum altitude and descending into the overcast...".

Numerous photos of the crash scene, collectively titled "California Plane Crash Disaster," are viewable among Google's LIFE magazine photo archive.