1966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash
Canadair CL-44 · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Tachikawa Airfield (RJTC) to Da Nang International Airport (DAD)
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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown
- Event fatalities
- 111 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 107
- Occupants
- 4
- 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
- 50 · all on the ground
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Canadair CL-44
- Aircraft type
- Canadair CL-44
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N228SW
- Operator
- Flying Tiger Line
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Tachikawa Airfield (RJTC)To Da Nang International Airport (DAD)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air taxi & commuter (international military cargo contract)
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Controlled collision with ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Da Nang, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On December 24, 1966, a Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 flying from Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan to Da Nang Airport struck an obstacle, stalled, and crashed into Binh Thai village, killing all four crew members and 107 people on the ground. The flight was on a subcontract for the United States Air Force. This was the first fatal accident for the CL-44 and the deadliest as well.
Accident
The aircraft approached Da Nang Airport in rain and foggy conditions and low fuel tanks. The aircraft was on a flight carrying munitions and cargo for the United States Air Force. As the fuel tanks were near empty, aborting the landing was rendered impossible. At 19:15 local time, a kilometer south of the runway, the plane clipped trees and crashed into the village of Binh Thai, plowing through 55 thatched huts over a distance of 275 meters. All four crew members were killed and 107 people were killed on the ground. 50 people on the ground were injured, 19 of them seriously.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was a controlled flight into terrain. It was thought that the crew continued the approach under the glide path, probably due to the poor weather conditions during the flight. This resulted in the crash.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash” (revision 1375071290, 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
NTSB remarks
INVESTIGATION UNDER JURISDICTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH VIETNAM.PRELIMINARY DATA
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash
- Revision
- 1375071290 · 2026-09-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q20986945
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record
- Event ID
- 19661224P010947
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash" (page 69742655, revision 1375071290); merged with NTSB case NTSB19661224P010947 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record NTSB19661224P010947
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "1966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash" and NTSB case NTSB19661224P010947, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- From NTSB's 1962-1981 archive (PRE1982), which holds at most a short remark (98 characters, abbreviated) instead of a narrative; the accident type, phase of flight, causes and conditions are NTSB's codes, decoded as the archive defines them.
- Reviewed means this record passed the site's consistency check, not that it was checked against a narrative or report - there is none to check against.
- The operation category is mapped from the archive's operator and operation codes and has not been reviewed.