Disappearance of the R7V-1 over the Atlantic
US Navy Lockheed R7V-1 Super Constellation · Went missing
From Patuxent River (Maryland, USA) to Port Lyautey (Morocco)
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
- 42 · 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
- Military
Lockheed R7V-1 Super Constellation
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed R7
- 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
- BuNo 128441
- Operator
- US Navy
- Onboard fatalities
- 42
- Route
- From Patuxent River (Maryland, USA)To Port Lyautey (Morocco)
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The disappearance of the R7V-1 over the Atlantic was an aviation accident that occurred on the night of Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 October 1954, when a Lockheed R7V-1 Super Constellation military aircraft of US Naval Aviation with 42 people on board disappeared in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. No trace of the aircraft was found, and there are no official versions of what might have happened to it. The accident itself received publicity in the media because it occurred just north of the boundary of the Bermuda Triangle.
Investigation and cause
Causes
In the opinion of the board of inquiry, aircraft 128441 encountered a sudden and powerful force that made it impossible to continue the flight, as a result of which the crew lost control of the aircraft. The nature of this force could not be determined. The most likely version is that the crew encountered a powerful thunderstorm front. Although only weak thunderstorms were forecast along the route, and the R7V-1 itself was equipped with an ASP-42 weather radar that could have made it possible to see thunderstorm cells in advance and fly around them, the bad-weather version cannot be completely ruled out.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Исчезновение R7V-1 над Атлантикой” (revision 155004009, 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: Исчезновение R7V-1 над Атлантикой
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 155004009 · 2026-09-12 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q55663609
- 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 "Исчезновение R7V-1 над Атлантикой" (page 7408255, revision 155004009), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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: aircraft 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.