50 Years Ago Today...


In 1956, two pilots diverted from course, possibly to give passengers a better view of the Grand Canyon. But they didn’t see each other.



High above the Grand Canyon, the planes were on a collision course.


United Airlines Flight 718 and TWA Flight 2 had departed Los Angeles just three minutes apart and taken slightly different routes eastward. The United plane was bound for Chicago; the TWA plane for Kansas City.


As they neared the Arizona border, it’s possible one or both pilots took a diversion to give passengers a closer view of the canyon. Both planes then ended up at the same altitude, 21,000 feet.


The planes collided, with the tail of the TWA Super Constellation striking the wing of the United plane. The TWA plane’s propellers sliced through the DC-7’s fuselage. Robert Harms, the first officer on the United plane, radioed an urgent message to controllers in Salt Lake City:


“Salt Lake, United 718, ahh … we’re going in!”


The crash, 50 years ago Friday,  killed all 128 people on the two planes and changed aviation forever. It prompted an outcry that accelerated the creation of the modern air traffic control system and the birth of the Federal Aviation Administration.


An article in an FAA magazine in 1983 said “the horror and revulsion over the crash reverberated like thunder from one end of the country to the other ... For the first time, Congress and the public learned just how primitive the air traffic control system really was.”


Now, on the 50th anniversary of the crash, the system is again at a turning point because it is outdated and inefficient. But there is a paradox: Because of the lessons of the 1956 midair collision, the system is so safe that there is not much urgency for improvements.




Diverting from flight plans

In the mid 1950s, flying offered a few frills. Meals came on china plates, served by stewardesses or “hostesses.” Planes were given individual names like oceanliners. This particular DC-7 was the City of Vancouver. The Super Constellation was the Star of the Seine.


Passengers on the two flights represented a cross-section of the nation: a Chrysler executive, a Wall Street broker, an elevator operator and several women attending a national sorority convention.


People who have studied the crash believe the pilots diverted from their flight plans.


“That was a standard part of the routine, that you would give your passengers a better view of the canyon and tell them all about it,” said Dan Driskill,  a Flagstaff, Ariz., paramedic writing a book about the crash.


The planes were on different eastbound routes that would converge over the Painted Desert, a scenic area east of the Grand Canyon. But such a convergence was not considered a safety hazard because pilots reported their positions by radio and, if they got close, there was an expectation they would see and avoid each other.


As the planes were over the Grand Canyon, Jack Gandy, the captain of the TWA plane, asked for permission to climb from 19,000 to 21,000 feet, but his request was denied because the United plane was already at that altitude. However, controllers said he could climb 1,000 feet above the clouds, apparently unaware that also would put him at 21,000.


A TWA radio operator who was relaying the messages reminded Gandy of other traffic in the area — the United plane. Gandy radioed back that he understood. “Traffic received.”


When planes were outside large urban areas in the mid 1950s, controllers provided advisories about other traffic but had no obligation to keep the planes apart. That was up to the pilots.


Investigators never figured out why the United and TWA crews did not see one another. The pilots may have been distracted by something in the cockpit. Their view might have been blocked by a big cloud or limited by the small cockpit windows.


The death toll was at that time the largest in history. The New York Times headline shouted: “ALL 128 ON 2 AIRLINERS FOUND DEAD; CRAFT PRESUMED TO HAVE COLLIDED BEFORE CRASHING IN GRAND CANYON.”



'We are all to blame’

The crash exposed serious gaps in the nation’s air traffic system. Around major cities, controllers kept planes separated. But elsewhere, there was no radar coverage and pilots were largely on their own.


The rules, written in the 1930s, had not kept up with the rapid growth of the industry. Big airliners like the Super Constellation and the DC-7 were allowed to fly under “visual rules,” which permitted pilots to choose their own routes as long as they kept themselves separated from other aircraft.


“We are all to blame,” was the headline on an angry editorial in Aviation Week magazine two weeks after the crash.


Congress and the Eisenhower administration moved quickly to fix the problem, spending millions for new radar equipment, navigational devices and new employees. The government had already planned to improve the system, but the outcry accelerated the effort. The government also changed flying rules so all civil planes above 18,000 feet were put under the control of the air traffic system, which meant pilots had to get permission to change their route or altitude.


“The system has really served us well,” said Paul Railsback, director of operations for the Air Transport Association, an airline trade group. “It’s a brilliantly designed system.”


'Tombstone mentality’

Today, the system is again at a turning point.


By all accounts, it is very safe. The accident rate for commercial aircraft is at a historic low. Nationwide radar and 15,000 air traffic controllers keep planes separated. And should there be a lapse, airliners are equipped with on-board devices that detect nearby planes and shout “Traffic! Traffic!”


Yet today’s system relies on some of the same ground-based navigation points that were used in the 1950s. In fact, many are on the sites of the primitive light towers or bonfires used to mark air routes in the 1920s.


Today’s system, while safe, is outdated and inefficient. The radar is so imprecise that planes have to be spaced 5 miles apart. That reduces how many planes can fly to any given airport, which can cause thousands of flights to be delayed.


The FAA wants to rely on a sophisticated satellite-based navigation system that would allow planes to fly more direct routes and fly closer together. But the costly project is still in the trial stage and has not gotten the big financial push it needs.


“You need political will,” said Basil Barimo, vice president of operations and safety for the Air Transport Association.

“That drives the money, the focus.”


So the legacy of the Grand Canyon crash continues. It made the system safer. But it is so safe that there’s no outcry to improve it.


There have long been complaints that the government had a “tombstone mentality” because it did not act until a deadly crash.


John Cox, a St. Petersburg aviation safety consultant, said the FAA shouldn’t need another tragedy. “We should not wait until an accident occurs before we make improvements.”

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I'll wager some bigwig said "Vancouver! Thats a city!"

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There is a Vancouver, Washington......just across the river from Portland Oregon.

Well, you learn something new everyday!!