North Central Airlines Flight 261
Convair 580 and Home Airmotive… Cessna 150 · Mid-air collision
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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 11
- 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
- 1 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Convair 580
- Aircraft type
- Convair 580
- 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
- N4634S
- Operator
- North Central Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)To General Mitchell International Airport (MKE)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Collision with aircraft - both in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 150
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N8742S
- Operator
- Home Airmotive…
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- 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
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Lombard, United StatesTo Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States
- 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 91: General aviation (fixed base operator)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Collision with aircraft - both in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Sunglare
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Windshield, dirty, foggy, etc.-restricted vision
- Miscellaneous › Foreign material affecting normal operations
- Personnel › Pilot of other aircraft
- Pilot in command › Inadequate supervision of flight
- Weather › Obstructions to vision
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Milwaukee, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
North Central Airlines Flight 261 (flight number: NC261, callsign: NORTH CENTRAL 261) was a domestic scheduled flight of North Central Airlines from Chicago to Milwaukee. On 4 August 1968 a serious air accident occurred on this flight, when the Convair CV-580 operating it collided in flight with a Cessna 150, which then became lodged in its forward cargo compartment. The Convair was ultimately able to make a safe emergency landing at Milwaukee Airport, with all eleven of its occupants uninjured. The three occupants of the Cessna died in the accident.
Accident sequence
The flights of both aircraft were conducted under visual flight rules. The Convair took off from Chicago-O'Hare Airport at 9:34 with a delay of nine minutes. During the climb, in which the first officer was at the controls while the captain handled the radio communications, an unusually large number of insects struck the cockpit windows of the Convair, which impaired the pilots' view. The captain compared the situation to a snow shower in which ice accumulates on the cockpit windows. The pilots continued the climb with the cockpit windows heavily soiled by insect strikes. The captain and the first officer described the view through the cockpit windows as considerably restricted.
Two passengers later stated that shortly before the collision they had sighted a small aircraft located ahead and to the right of the Convair and approaching it almost at a right angle. The next moment they had lost sight of the aircraft, and shortly afterwards the collision occurred. The two aircraft collided at an altitude of 2700 feet (about 820 metres). The Convair was on approach to runway 07. The Cessna, flying northwest, struck the forward cargo hold of the Convair and its right front at 09:48 local time, severely deforming the cabin and fuselage of the Convair on the right side. A large part of the Cessna's wreckage fell to the ground, but the cabin with the bodies of the three occupants remained stuck in the forward cargo compartment of the Convair. The first officer of the Convair suffered serious leg and head injuries. As a result of the collision the Convair lost electrical power, and the right engine failed because of a damaged propeller. Six minutes later the captain of the Convair was able to carry out a successful emergency landing. The captain of the Convair managed to maintain control of the badly damaged aircraft and land it safely at Milwaukee Airport.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) took over the investigation into the cause of the accident. The investigators found that the crew of the Convair 580 had been unable, despite three radar warnings, to sight the Cessna 150 in time to initiate an evasive manoeuvre. The view had been considerably restricted by heavy insect residue on the windshield and the side windows of the Convair. Haze, smoke, glare from the sun, as well as the inconspicuous colour and the lack of relative motion of the Cessna, had further reduced visibility. Under these circumstances the crew of the Convair should have requested a radar avoidance vector, which had not been done.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “North-Central-Airlines-Flug 261” (revision 264843625, 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
NTSB remarks
INSECT SMEARS AND METRO CONDS REDUCED VISUAL DETECT CPTY.RARAD ISSUED,CRW DID NOT REQ AVOID VECT.
N4634S STRUCK N8742S IN FLIGHT.
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
German Wikipedia article: North-Central-Airlines-Flug 261
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 264843625 · 2026-03-01 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q137973189
- 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
- 19680804P023241
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "North-Central-Airlines-Flug 261" (page 13433152, revision 264843625), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case NTSB19680804P023241 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241
- Map position
- NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241: centre of the town the record names (GeoNames, CC BY 4.0)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241: 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 NTSB19680804P023241: operated under Part 121: Air carrier (scheduled domestic passg.svc), Part 91: General aviation (fixed base operator)
- Fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19680804P023241: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "North Central Airlines Flight 261" and NTSB case NTSB19680804P023241, 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.