Eastern Air Lines Flight 665
Douglas C-49-DO · Controlled flight into terrain
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
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 19
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
- 1
- 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
Douglas C-49-DO
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C-49
- 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
- NC88872
- Operator
- Eastern Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- 18
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Eastern Air Lines Flight 665 was a domestic airline flight, on January 12, 1947, using a Douglas C-49-DO, which deviated from its course during a rainstorm, struck high ground a few miles west of Galax, Virginia, and burned, killing all but one of the 19 aboard.
Crash
The converted C-49 Skytrain, coming in from the east, struck trees behind the Providence Church in the Providence community in Grayson County, just west-northwest of Galax, Virginia, and cut a path about 500 yards long. "The wings were ripped off and the fuselage came to rest against a fill where a dirt road leads from highway No. 94 into the church. It was a scant five feet from the pavement on the North-South highway and about a 100 yards from the intersection with route 95." The time of the crash was fixed at 0140 hrs. by a resident who checked a clock when she heard the impact. She immediately called the fire department. The plane impacted at an altitude of about 2,500 feet.
The sole surviving passenger, 25-year-old William Keyes Jr., was saved by two members of the Providence community who ripped his seat from the burning fuselage. The Galax fire department and rescue squad arrived in 20 minutes and extinguished the fire with chemicals and water. They pulled 18 badly charred bodies from the wreck in an hour and a half.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The Civil Aeronautics Board report on the accident stated that the cause was "The action of the pilot in attempting a let-down without having positively determined the position of the aircraft. A contributing factor was the erroneous navigation of the pilot which on at least two occasions led him to believe that he was farther south than he actually was"
Text from the Wikipedia article “Eastern Air Lines Flight 665” (revision 1368956730, 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: Eastern Air Lines Flight 665
- Article
- Eastern Air Lines Flight 665
- Revision
- 1368956730 · 2026-08-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q29017934
- 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 "Eastern Air Lines Flight 665" (page 53300337, revision 1368956730)
- 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.