1950 Westair Transport accident

The 1950 Westair Transport accident occurred on the charter flight of a Curtiss C-46F-1-CU N1248N of Westair Transport from San Juan in Puerto Rico to Wilmington in North Carolina on 5 June 1950. On this flight the aircraft had to be ditched in the Atlantic Ocean after the engines had failed in flight. The three crew members and 34 passengers were rescued from the sinking aircraft, but 28 passengers drowned.

Accident sequence

The aircraft, loaded 258 pounds (117 kg) above its maximum take-off weight, took off from San Juan at 17:24 for the flight to Wilmington, where the aircraft was due to arrive at 23:14. During the flight, at around 21:45, the pilots observed on the instruments that the oil quantity of the right engine had dropped from 32 to 20 gallons. Immediately afterwards the left engine backfired and lost power. Black smoke from the engine trailed along the left side of the aircraft, and there was a smell of burning in the aircraft cabin. The pilots tried to remedy this fire by adjusting the carburettor temperature and the fuel mixture, but the measures proved ineffective. They then decided on a diversion to Nassau, where the nearest airport suitable for an emergency landing of the C-46 was located. The operating condition of the right engine was adjusted to 2,400 revolutions per minute and a manifold pressure of 30. The cruising altitude of 6,500 feet was maintained for the following five minutes.

Shortly afterwards the pilots observed that the oil quantity of the right engine had dropped from 20 to 15 gallons, so that the engine overheated and had developed a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius in the area of the cylinder head. For this reason the captain decided to let the aircraft descend in order to initiate a ditching before a complete failure of the damaged engine. An attempt was made to hold a height of 200 feet and to wait until control stations on land could take a radio bearing. Then the speed of the damaged engine dropped from 2,400 to 2,250 revolutions per minute and could not be brought back up. By pulling back the right throttle lever, the airspeed was reduced to 100 to 110 miles per hour. About 20 minutes after the failure of the left engine, the aircraft was ditched in the sea. The landing lights and high-lift devices were not used during the ditching. At the time the weather was clear, and the wind was blowing from the southwest at speeds of 10 miles per hour.

After the aircraft had come to rest in the water, the crew entered the cabin and opened the main cabin door and the emergency exits. The emergency exits had not been opened before the ditching as the operator's operating regulations required. Some passengers climbed onto the wings, others jumped into the sea. All seven life rafts, each intended for 10 people, were thrown overboard. Five of them drifted away because their mooring lines were not held on to. The remaining two were inflated. The three crew members and 34 of the 62 passengers managed to swim to the life rafts and get on board. Many passengers were injured after the ditching because the cargo and pieces of baggage stowed in the racks above them had fallen on them. At certain intervals a total of five flares were fired, but they were not seen. The crew of another C-46 of the airline, which had been dispatched to search for the missing aircraft, reported at 23:21 that it had sighted a flashing light on the water. The position was determined, and the next morning a Coast Guard aircraft discovered the survivors. Shortly afterwards the USS Saufley, a destroyer of the United States Navy, reached the position and took aboard the passengers in the life rafts.