United Airlines Flight 615
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United Air Lines Flight 615 was a US transcontinental east–west airline service from
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Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
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. On August 24, 1951, the
Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...
with registration operating the service, crashed on approach to Oakland, causing the death of all 44 passengers and 6 crew members on board. The flight departed
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
at 10:59 p.m. CST en route to Oakland. At around 4:16 a.m., the plane was approaching Oakland. At this time, the pilot, Marion W. Hedden of Los Altos, had talked with the control tower of the Civil Aeronautics Administration at the airport preparing for his landing, and had mentioned no trouble. At 4:25 a.m. Flight 615 was cleared for the straight-in approach into Oakland. This approach clearance was the last radio transmission with the flight. The plane crashed into mountainous terrain southeast of Oakland, careening into Tolman Peak and over its knoll, scattering on the downslope and into Dry Gulch Canyon below in a fiery explosion. All 50 persons on board perished. After an investigation, it was determined that the pilot ignored the prescribed instrument landing procedures. The pilot instead relied on visual reference, using the copilot's automatic direction finder (ADF). The ADF threw the plane off course and below the prescribed altitude of .


See also

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List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft __NOTOC__ This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet ...


References


External links

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Report
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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 ...

PDFUnion City History - Crash of Flight 615
- includes period photographs and a chart excerpt from CAB report

- includes hiking directions to the crash site

- includes full crew and passenger list
Mishalov.com - The Crash of a DC-6B in Alameda County, California
- includes current-day photographs of crash site and topographic map * from Airdisaster.com {{Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in the 1950s Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1951 History of Alameda County, California 615 Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-6 Airliner accidents and incidents in California Union City, California 1951 in California August 1951 in the United States