Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 refers to the crash of a

Lockheed Super Constellation The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The aircraft was colloquially referred to as the Super Connie. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC ...

aircraft, N6915C, shortly after

takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a tr ...

from

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

in the early morning hours of Thursday, December 24, 1964.

Description

On Wednesday, December 23, 1964,

Flying Tiger Line Flying Tiger Line, also known as Flying Tigers, was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a military charter operator during the Cold War era for both cargo and personnel (the latter with leased aircraft). The airline was boug ...

Flight 282 arrived at

from Japan. Filled with a cargo of electronic equipment, bolts of fabric, women's scarves, bandannas, purses, and costume jewelry for the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

holiday, the craft was refueled and then departed just after midnight with a crew of three, of cargo, of mail, and 5,000 gallons of high-octane

aviation fuel Aviation fuels are either petroleum-based or blends of petroleum and synthetic fuels, used to power aircraft. They have more stringent requirements than fuels used for ground applications, such as heating and road transport, and they contain add ...

. There crewmen aboard were:

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

Jabez A. Richards, 49, of Bayhead, New Jersey; Daniel W. Hennessy, 33, of Hillsborough, California, as co-pilot, and Paul M. Entz, 37, of North Hollywood, California, as

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

. The weather was heavy

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

and rain. A large

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

was moving onshore; it had already caused the loss of a

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

helicopter. Going northwest from

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

, Flight 282 was to head out over the ocean to circle and gain altitude, then travel east toward its destination of

JFK International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Shortly after takeoff, however, the plane veered to the left of its planned course. The pilot subsequently asked the

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

for permission to change his radio setting from takeoff to departure frequency. Seconds later, the plane vanished from the tower's radar scope. The "Super Connie" crashed near the top of Sweeney Ridge in San Bruno, very close to the site of a Coast Guard radio station. All three crew members aboard were killed. No one on the ground was killed or injured. The

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1940 from a split of the Civil Aeronautics Authority and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services (including scheduled passe ...

determined that the probable cause of the accident was that the pilot, for undetermined reasons, deviated from departure course into an area of rising terrain, where downdraft activity and turbulence affected the ability of the craft to climb.

References

External links

CAB Aircraft Accident Report, SA-382 File No. 1-0064
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* ttp://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Flying_Tiger_282.htm Check-Six.com - The Crash of Flying Tiger Line Flight 282- including period and recent photographs of the crash site {{Portal bar, San Francisco, Aviation, 1960s Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1964 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error 1964 in California San Francisco International Airport Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed Constellation Airliner accidents and incidents in California 0282 History of San Mateo County, California December 1964 in the United States