Page:CAB Accident Report, Eastern Air Lines Flight 45.pdf/1

 Docket No. SA-104

CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT

Adopted: November 30, 1945

EASTERN AIR LINES — USAAF — NEAR FLORENCE, S.C. — JULY 12, 1945

Summary

An air collision between EAL's Flight 45 en route from Boston, Mass., to Miami, Fla., and a USAAF A-26 aircraft engaged in local practice flight resulted fatally to one occupant of the airliner and to two occupants of the Army plane, major damage to the first plane and demolition of the latter. Three passengers and the four crew members of the airliner received injuries which were not critical.

The airliner, a DC3, was in straight flight and letting down at approximately 200 feet per minute toward Colombia, S.C., its next scheduled stop about 62 miles away. The Army plane at the instant of impact had just returned to straight level flight after having been banked 15° or 20° to the left in a turn of about two miles radius for more than one minute. Impact occurred at an altitude of approximately 3100 feet about 12 miles WNW of Florence while the planes were flying at approximately right angles with the A-26 to the left of the DC3. The point of collision was about 8 miles to the right of the airways boundary and approximately 15 miles from the USAAF Airport at Florence where the A-26 was based.

The significant factors of this accident are:


 * 1) The DC3 was off the airway but had the right-of-way.
 * 2) The A-26 had for a distance of several miles been in an attitude so that its pilot could not see other aircraft to his right, i.e., "give way" side.

On the basis of the evidence available at this time the Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of each pilot to see the other aircraft in time to avoid collision. Contributing factors were the DC3 pilot's deviation from the airway in the proximity of an active USAAF base and his lack of vigilance, and the Army pilot's continuing a maneuver which restricted his vision in an area not set aside for such maneuvers.