Page:CAB Accident Report, Eastern Air Lines Flight 304.pdf/1

SA-379

ADOPTED June 27, 1966

Eastern Air Lines, Inc., Flight 304, a DC-8, N8607, crashed in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, approximately 19 miles northeast of the New Orleans International Airport, at approximately 0205 c. s. t., February 25, 1964. All 51 passengers and the crew of seven were fatally injured.

The flight, scheduled from Mexico City to New York City, with several intermediate stops, had just departed from New Orleans at 0200. Three minutes later the captain acknowledged a request to change radio frequencies, but no further communications were received from the flight. A 0205:40 the radar target associated with Flight 304 had disappeared from the scopes of both the radar controllers who were observing the flight. Moderate to severe turbulence existed in the area at the time of the accident.

The Board determines the probable cause of this accident was the degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions.

1.1

Eastern Air Lines (EAL) Flight 304 (N8607) originated in Mexico City and had intermediate stops scheduled at New Orleans, Atlanta, and Washington prior to the destination of New York City. Aircraft N8607 arrived in Mexico City at 2212 on February 24, 1964. The captain of the inbound crew reported that "…the only exception to normality was that the PIC (pitch trim compensator) was inoperative, with a fix scheduled for the next morning at Kennedy Airport."

The captain of Fight 304 files an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan for a reduced airspeed, in accordance with company procedures for dispatch under these conditions. The flight attendants, who were scheduled for a crew change, and the deplaning passengers at New Orleans indicated that this segment of the flight