C-118 crash at McGuire

The C-118 crash at McGuire was an aviation disaster involving a Douglas C-118A Liftmaster transport aircraft of the United States Air Force that occurred on Friday, 13 July 1956 near McGuire Air Force Base (New Jersey). The accident claimed 46 lives. It was the first crash in the history of the Douglas Liftmaster.

Crash

Aircraft 53-3301 was operating transport flight 441/13 to transfer a group of military personnel to England. In the cabin were 41 American airmen, 9 foreign officers and 6 civilians, including two children — a boy and a girl flying with their mother — that is, 56 passengers in total. A thunderstorm with hail and numerous lightning strikes was raging over the air base and its surroundings when the "Liftmaster" with 66 people on board took off from the runway in a southerly direction. But after that the crew did not make contact again. As one of the passenger airmen, Tom Hamrick (Tom Hamrick), later recounted, the aircraft had begun to climb when it suddenly dropped into an "air pocket". The pilots tried to level the aircraft, but at 15:37 it crashed into a pine forest three miles from the runway, after which, having torn through the trees for about 300 yd, it broke up, with wreckage scattered over a total of ½–1 mile. No fire broke out at the crash site.

When at 16 o'clock the controllers were unable to contact the departed aircraft, they waited another two hours, since they were not sure that it had actually taken off, and only then raised the alarm. Soldiers from Fort Dix witnessed the accident and ran to the crash site, but mud and difficult weather conditions made progress much harder. Also, some passengers who had freed themselves from the wreckage went out onto a road, where they were seen by military policemen, who reported what had happened.

Rescue operations were complicated by the inaccessibility of the terrain and a severe thunderstorm, so the injured were at first brought out on foot. Later a path to the aircraft was cleared with bulldozers, and in total 250 people, including medics, took part in the rescue operations. 43 people died at the scene, two people died the same day in hospitals, and later one more died. In total the crash claimed 46 lives: 8 crew members (of the flight crew, only the flight engineer survived) and 38 passengers, including two women and both children. As the pathological examination showed, the people died from fractures, although the seat belts broke on only 6 people. Many survivors were then unable to unfasten these belts on their own and remained seated until the rescuers arrived.