Northwest Airlines Flight 1
Lockheed 14H Super Electra · In-flight fire
From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP) to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Lockheed 14H Super Electra
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 14
- 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
- NC17389
- Operator
- Northwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)To King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Organizational issues › Development
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
Northwest Airlines Flight 1, registration NC17389, was a Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra aircraft which crashed in eastern Montana on Friday, January 13, 1939, approximately 0.5 mi southwest of the Miles City Airport. All four on board were killed in the accident.
Flight
Flight 1 normally originated from Chicago to Seattle, with intermediate stops in Minneapolis; Fargo, North Dakota; Bismarck, North Dakota; Miles City, Montana; Billings, Montana; Butte, Montana; and Spokane, Washington. On the date of the accident, the flight actually began in Minneapolis and departed at 4:00 PM CST. After the two stops in North Dakota, the flight reached Miles City at 7:41 PM MST to refuel and take on cargo.
Accident
Departure from Miles City was delayed for over an hour due to weather conditions at Billings, but the aircraft eventually departed at 9:14 PM, with only two passengers on board.
Shortly after takeoff to the northwest (current runway 31), and at an altitude of 500 ft above ground level (AGL), the aircraft began a short turn to the left, lost altitude rapidly, and descended almost to the ground. It then pulled up into a sharp climb, reached about 500 feet AGL again, turned left again and descended rapidly into a ravine approximately half-mile southwest of the field.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Investigators with the Department of Commerce's Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), a predecessor organization to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), determined that an intense fire had developed in the cockpit shortly after the aircraft had departed the airport.
Although the state of the wreckage prevented investigators from definitively pinpointing the exact origin of the fire, an area of severe burning was found close to the cross-feed fuel valve located in the cockpit between the pilot and co-pilot. The Super Electra's cross-feed fuel system maintained a constant pressure of approximately 4.5 psi, and there had been numerous reports of leakage in the vicinity of the valve. Lockheed designers had not provided any method by which any fuel that did leak from the valve could safely be drained. It was also difficult to maintain or inspect the valve due to its location.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Northwest Airlines Flight 1” (revision 1369068109, 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: Northwest Airlines Flight 1
- Article
- Northwest Airlines Flight 1
- Revision
- 1369068109 · 2026-08-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7059917
- 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 "Northwest Airlines Flight 1" (page 7637777, revision 1369068109)
- 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.