Northeast Airlines Flight 285

Northeast Airlines Flight 285 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Boston's Logan International Airport to New York's LaGuardia Airport with stops in Hyannis, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and New Bedford that crashed on September 15, 1957, while trying to land at New Bedford. Seven passengers and two crew members were killed in the crash and three passengers later died from injuries. It was Northeast Airlines' second fatal crash of the year (the first was Flight 823) and was followed by another deadly crash (Flight 258) the following year.

Flight

The flight, which carried freight, mail, and passengers, departed from Boston for Hyannis at 5:50 p.m. with 21 passengers on board. The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3, departed Hyannis at 6:35 p.m. for Nantucket. It left Nantucket at 7:30 p.m. for Martha's Vineyard. The plane missed its first landing approach at Martha's Vineyard due to poor weather conditions, but landed safely on the second approach at 8:07 p.m. All of the original passengers deplaned at these stops. Seven new passengers boarded at Nantucket and fourteen more boarded at Martha's Vineyard. At 8:18 p.m., the plane, which was 50 minutes behind schedule, took off from Martha's Vineyard for New Bedford, where one passenger was scheduled to get off. The rest were bound for the flight's final stop at LaGuardia.

Crash

Around 8:45 p.m., the plane made a normal approach to the field. On its final approach to New Bedford, it smashed a 400 ft path through trees and went down about 4000 ft short of the runway, in the Apponegansett Swamp. A number of Catholic priests made their way through the swamp to administer spiritual care to the victims.