Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 8
Transcontinental & Western Air Douglas DC-3-454 · Structural failure following loss of control in turbulence
From San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
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
- 24 · 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
Douglas DC-3-454
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- NC28310
- Operator
- Transcontinental and Western Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 24
- Route
- From San Francisco International Airport (SFO)To Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Hanford, California, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 8 (flight number: TW008) was a domestic scheduled flight of Transcontinental and Western Air within California from San Francisco to Hollywood. On 4 November 1944 the flight was operated with a Douglas DC-3-454. On that day the pilots flew the aircraft into a thundercloud, whereupon it broke apart in the air and crashed to the ground near Hanford, California. All 24 occupants were killed in the accident.
Flight and accident sequence
The aircraft lifted off at 16:00, one hour behind the scheduled departure time. In accordance with the flight plan, the pilots had the aircraft climb to its cruising altitude of 10,000 feet after takeoff. The pilots reported passing over Fresno as scheduled and gave their time over Bakersfield as 17:35. Near Hanford, eyewitnesses observed the aircraft flying into a rapidly forming formation of cumulonimbus clouds. Presumably owing to turbulence, the aircraft rotated 180 degrees about its roll axis and thus assumed an abnormal attitude. The DC-3 then broke apart and crashed to the ground. All 24 occupants were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The Civil Aeronautics Board took over the investigation into the cause of the accident. On the basis of all the evidence collected, the investigators considered structural failure under severe turbulence to be the most probable cause of the accident. As a contributing factor, the investigators named the abnormal attitude at the time the structural failure began. Why the aircraft turned upside down in the thundercloud could not be determined.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Transcontinental-and-Western-Air-Flug 8” (revision 252302430, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Transcontinental-and-Western-Air-Flug 8
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 252302430 · 2025-01-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q130535787
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Transcontinental-and-Western-Air-Flug 8" (page 13152923, revision 252302430), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.