A multitude of airplane crashes have occurred in North Carolina through
the years. Much of this work is reprinted as an excerpt (or excerpts)
from other bodies of work produced; such as typical web sources such as Wikipedia,
the Associated Press, NTSB or by the webmaster who previously recorded
these accounts for prior academic submissions. Several of these
events are still etched in the minds of the responders. However,
several others have long since faded into the pages of history.
Nevertheless, Military Aircraft continue to take off, land and fly over
the state, as well as civilian passenger aircraft. Having so many
Military Aircraft based in North Carolina does to a very limited extent,
raise some chance of disastrous occurrence, nevertheless, hosting these
assets are both an honor and certainly represent the historical
patriotic beliefs long held by North Carolinians.
There are
three commonalities between all of these crashes.
-
Generally, it is a mass fatality event.
-
Generally, if there are survivors, there are burn patients,
-
Generally, the only time fire is not involved, the plane crashed
into a body of water (two occurrences and killed all on board.)
Significant components of this list
are derived from an internet site aptly named:
Mike's deadliest fires database. I have
reviewed data from many of these events and can confirm many of the more
significant events.
Please note several significant
events which will be reported in more detail in linked pages.
They include the Piedmont 727 which
was involved in a midair collision with a Cessna near Hendersonville in
1967 killing 82, to date remains the most deadly civilian airline crash.
Also, please note the crash of
National DC-6 near Bolivia traveling from New York to Miami. This
was one of the first recorded event of using a bomb to purposefully
bring down an
airplane in the United States. It is believed, that a passenger
brought aboard a briefcase with a dynamite bomb inside, near Bolivia he
detonated the bomb bringing the plane down in pieces with no survivors.
Lastly, two significant military
accidents included B-52's flying during the height of the Cold War with
Nuclear Weapons on board crashed, one in Goldsboro and one in Lexington.
The one in Lexington was not thought to be as significant as the one in
Goldsboro. However, the Goldsboro crash destroyed one of the two
safeties and the second was damaged.
In each of these
situations, there were seldom significant numbers of survivors.
Nevertheless, with the ongoing air traffic and the likelihood that those
who do survive, will have a significant chance of a burn injury, they
are included in the research for this project.
Air crashes, involving private/commercial (with > 5):
Hendersonville, 7/19/67, 82 (Piedmont 727 vs. Cessna 310 at 6,132 feet)
Charlotte, 9/11/74, 71 (Eastern DC-9 approaching airport)
Charlotte, 7/2/94, 37 (USAir DC-9 after missed approach)
Bolivia, 1/6/60, 34 (National DC-6 caused by detonation of dynamite
within passenger cabin)
Charlotte, 1/8/03, 21 (Commuter jet during takeoff)
Morrisville, 12/13/94, 15 (Commuter plane on approach)
Cary (RDU), 2/19/88, 12 (Commuter plane during takeoff)
Chapel Hill, 2/7/81, seven
Tobaccoville, 1/20/68, six
Old Fort, 7/2/71, six
Greensboro, 4/13/73, six
Greenville, 5/15/92, six
Mecklenburg County, 6/03/63, five (source: Google news archive)
Shelby, 12/3/64, five
RDU, 2/21/64, five (source:
http://www.legeros.com/ralwake/rdu/timeline.shtml)
Raleigh (Umstead Park), 2/25/65, five
Bolivia, 6/18/65, five
Trenton, 6/30/67, five
Morrisville, 4/2/70, five
Burlington, 12/4/71, five
Bryson City, 8/9/77, five
Sanford, 9/8/77, five
Kitty Hawk, 7/4/79, five
Cherry Point, 1/9/83, five
Banner Elk, 11/5/83, five
Flat Rock, 8/23/85, five
Indian Trail, 5/25/98, five
Mount Airy, 3/1/03, five
See
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp
for
more NTSB accident info. Also see
http://aviation-safety.net/database/.
Air accidents involving military aircraft (With > 5 fatalities)
Pope AFB, 3/23/94, 24 (and 100+ injured, F-16 vs. C-130 at 300 feet
above runway)
Wadesboro, 4/28/92, 9 killed, C-130 crashed into Lake
Camp Lejeune, 6/23/67, 21 (helicopter collision)
Camp Lejeune, 5/10/96, 14 (helicopter collision)
Cherry Point MCAS, 10/16/75, nine (TC-4C on initial lift-off)
Cherry Point MCAS, 3/07/59, eight
Burgaw, by 7/05/45, seven (Brazilian air force)
Pope AFB, 3/30/54, seven (C-119 on takeoff into mess hall, 31 injured)
Fort Bragg, 7/02/87, five (C-130 on dirt runway, also struck jeep with
one person)
Nuculear Weapons on Board
B-52 Goldsboro, 1/24/61, three killed. See
http://www.ibiblio.org/bomb/
B-52 Lexington, 3/30/61, six killed.
Photo top left is from
http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/ and is Pacific Southwest
Airlines Flight 182 just before it crashed into a southern
California neighborhood.
This site was last updated
12/12/08
