Continental Airlines Flight 12
Boeing 707 124 · Runway overrun
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 66
- Survivors
- 66
- 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
- 5
- 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
Boeing 707 124
- Flight
- CO12
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707 124
- 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
- N70773
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)To Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
- 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 121: Air carrier (scheduled domestic passenger service)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Overshoot
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Airports/airways/facilities › Wet runway
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Hydroplaning on wet runway
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On July 1, 1965, Continental Airlines Flight 12, a Boeing 707, overran the runway while attempting to land at Kansas City Municipal Airport. No one was killed or seriously injured, but the accident forced discussions about runway safety in Kansas City and resulted in the construction of a new airport, Kansas City International Airport, which opened in 1972. The accident also led to widespread implementation of runway grooving, which improves braking in wet landing conditions.
Background
Continental Airlines Flight 12 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Chicago O'Hare International Airport, with an intermediate stop in Kansas City. On July 1, 1965, operated Flight 12 using a Boeing 707 four-engine narrow-body airliner (registration (N70773). The flight crew consisted of captain Lee R. Zerba (44), first officer Howard T. Anderson (35), and flight engineer Harold E. Cameron (38).
Accident
After a routine flight, the plane was making an approach on the instrument landing system for Runway 18. There was heavy rain and low visibility at the airport. The wind was reported from the East-northeast at 7 knots. At most airports, this would normally mean an approach should be initiated from the other direction, Runway 36. Quality Hill, in downtown Kansas City overlooks the airport from this direction. It is so close to the end of the runway that aircraft have to go around it to land safely in good weather. This obstacle prevented the installation of an instrument landing system on this runway. It is normally considered safe to land opposite direction in these conditions but they would be landing with a slight tailwind.
Flight 12 landed in heavy rain at 5:29 a.m. Central Standard Time, about 1050 feet past the start of Runway 18. Spoilers, thrust reversers and braking were initiated, but did not slow the airplane as anticipated. Realizing the aircraft could not stop before the end of the runway, the captain deliberately tried to swing the aircraft to the left so the right wing would take the initial brunt of impact. Using left rudder and adding power to the Nos. 3 and 4 (right-side) engines, the aircraft pivoted 35 degrees to the left but continued to slide down the runway, still traveling at 40 knots when it went off the concrete. The right wing impacted a blast mound as the aircraft rolled over it, coming to rest in three pieces on the perimeter road between the mound and river levee. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off, making the accident the 14th hull loss of a Boeing 707. Five people (including three passengers and two crew members) received minor injuries.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident.
The CAB also determined that Flight 12 had not been given adequate weather information from the Kansas City approach controller or from company personnel that they could use to determine whether a safe landing was possible. As a result, the flight crew had no reason to expect difficulty during landing. The CAB also determined that the point Flight 12 had touched down (1050 feet beyond the start of the runway) was within the designated ILS touchdown area.
Having determined that the aircraft first touched down 1050 feet down the 7000 feet runway, the CAB investigated whether it was possible for Flight 12 to stop in the remaining (5950 feet. The CAB found evidence to believe that hydroplaning had occurred due to water accumulation on the runway. Based on information from Boeing on the 707's braking performance, input from a NASA technical expert, and witness interviews, the CAB determined that under the landing conditions at the time, it was not possible for Flight 12 to come to a stop in the remaining distance.
In June 1966, the CAB released their final report, concluding that "the probable cause of this accident was hydroplaning of the landing gear wheels which precluded braking effectiveness."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Continental Airlines Flight 12” (revision 1363710847, 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: Continental Airlines Flight 12
- Revision
- 1363710847 · 2026-07-11 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5165235
- 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
- 19650701P005473
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Continental Airlines Flight 12" (page 9929541, revision 1363710847); merged with NTSB case NTSB19650701P005473 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473: PRE1982 REGIST_NO, ACFT_MAKE, ACFT_MODEL; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473: operated under Part 121: Air carrier (scheduled domestic passg.svc)
- Fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19650701P005473: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Continental Airlines Flight 12" and NTSB case NTSB19650701P005473, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB'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.