Norwalk mid-air collision
US Air Force (1611th Air Transport Wing) Douglas DC-6 and US Navy Lockheed P-2 Neptune · 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
- Event fatalities
- 48 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
- Military
Aircraft 1 · Douglas DC-6
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-6
- 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
- 53-3277
- Onboard fatalities
- 41
- Route
- From Long Beach (California)To McGuire, Wrightstown (New Jersey)
Aircraft 2 · Lockheed P-2 Neptune
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed P-2
- 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
- 127723
- Operator
- US Navy
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- Not stated
- Route
- From Los Alamitos (California)To Los Alamitos (California)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Norwalk, California, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Norwalk mid-air collision was an aviation disaster that occurred on the evening of Saturday, 1 February 1958, in Norwalk (a suburb of Los Angeles). On that day, two American military aircraft collided in the sky over the city: a Douglas C-118A Liftmaster transport and a Lockheed P2V-5F Neptune patrol aircraft, which then crashed onto the city below them and were destroyed. In total, 48 people fell victim to the accident.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The probable cause of the crash was named as a simple error by both crews, who did not exercise sufficient vigilance while flying visually at night and did not prevent the collision.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Столкновение над Норуолком” (revision 152379326, 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
Russian Wikipedia article: Столкновение над Норуолком
- Article
- Столкновение над Норуолком
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 152379326 · 2026-03-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q20986948
- 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
- ru Wikipedia article "Столкновение над Норуолком" (page 5723469, revision 152379326), 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
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Russian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.