Disaster in the Skies: Collision Over the Grand Canyon

The 1956 Grand Canyon Mid-Air Collision: Tragic Prelude to Aviation Reform

On June 30, 1956, two passenger planes collided over the Grand Canyon, resulting in no survivors and a devastating disaster that spurred significant changes in aviation safety regulations. This episode of 'History's A Disaster' with Andrew examines the circumstances leading to the collision between TWA Flight 2 and United Airlines Flight 718. The lack of radar coverage, inadequate air traffic control, and the challenges of early aviation technology are discussed, highlighting the human and technical factors that contributed to the tragedy. The aftermath, including public outcry and legislative changes that led to the formation of the FAA, is also explored. The site of the crash has since been declared a National Historic Landmark, cementing its place in aviation history.

00:00 The Grand Canyon Mid-Air Collision: An Overview
00:42 Setting the Scene: Air Travel in the 1950s
01:21 The Fateful Morning: June 30th, 1956
02:39 Flight Paths and Air Traffic Control Challenges
07:43 The Collision: A Tragic Encounter
11:16 Aftermath and Investigation
17:17 Impact on Aviation Regulations
21:46 Legacy and Memorial
22:15 Conclusion and Sign-Off

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Transcript

Andrew: 0:00

On June 30th, 1956, two passenger planes collided into each other while traveling over the Grand Canyon. There was no survivors. One plane would end up crashing into the canyon floor while the other smashed into a cliff face. So what happened? Let's find out. Hello, I'm Andrew and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight we're taking a look into a devastating mid air collision that claimed multiple lives. In the 1950s, commercial air travel was still in its infancy. Radar was still a relatively new technology and had only just started seeing use in what was considered critical cities. Designating airways for navigation and travel was just starting to be used also. The jet age had not quite hit the commercial airlines yet either. They relied almost exclusively on propeller driven planes like the Douglas DC 7 and the Lockheed L 1049 Super Constellation in today's disaster. On the morning of June 30th, LAX was busy as shit. World War II had ended and the country's economy was booming. More people could fly than ever before. The airport was busy, but probably nothing like today. Plus, they didn't have the TSA to deal with. So that's gotta make it a lot better right there. Anyways, waiting to take off was two planes, TWA Flight 2, a super constellation flown by Captain Jack Gandy, First Officer James Rittner, and Flight Engineer Forrest Brayfogle. With a total of 64 passengers, they were waiting to go to Kansas City. And then you had United Airlines Flight 718, a DC 7 flown by Captain Robert Shirley, First Officer Robert Harms, and Flight Engineer Gerard Fiore. Their 53 passengers waited to head to Newark via Chicago's Midway Airport. At 9. 01, Captain Gandy departed LAX. Another long and boring flight for the captain. He was well experienced with over 15, 000 flight hours and had made this trip almost 200 times already. Initially, they were flying under instrument flight rules. Which basically means they had to rely on whatever basic ass instruments they had on the plane. They climbed to an authorized altitude of 19, 000 feet and stayed in controlled airspace as far as Daggett, California. At Daggett, Captain Gandhi turned right to a heading of 59 degrees magnetic toward the radio range near Trinidad, Colorado. They were now off airways, otherwise known as flying in uncontrolled airspace. Uncontrolled airspace is any airspace that does not have air traffic control services. Three minutes behind him, Captain Shirley got clearance to take off. Climbing to an authorized altitude of 21, 000 feet, Captain Shirley flew under IFR and controlled airspace to a point northeast of Palm Springs, California, where he turned left towards a radio beacon near Needles, after which his flight plan was direct to Durango in southwestern Colorado. Though still under IFR, they were now heading into uncontrolled airspace. Although heading in different directions, both planes would have to eventually cross the Grand Canyon. shortly after takeoff, Captain Gandy requested permission to climb to 21, 000 feet to avoid a storm that was brewing near his flight path. And, as was the pretty stupid practice at the time, his request had to be relayed by a TWA radio dispatcher to air traffic control, since neither crew was in direct contact with ATC after departure. ATC denied the request, the two airliners would soon be re entering controlled airspace. Outside of Las Vegas, an ATC had no way to provide the horizontal separation required between two aircraft at the same altitude. So, Captain Gandy then requested 1, 000 on top clearance. 1, 000 on top clearance means they'd have to fly 1, 000 feet above the clouds. This was approved by ATC. By flying on top of the clouds, the aircraft would have to switch to VFR. Which is visual flight rules, and the pilot would be responsible for their navigation and separation from other aircraft. The controller that approved this climb to a thousand feet on top had not realized that over the Grand Canyon that morning, clouds had reached 20, 000 feet. Although this clearance allowed Captain Gandhi to fly at any height at or above 21, 000 feet, he basically got permission for the same exact flight that ATC had denied just minutes ago. They did, however, pass along that Flight 718 would be flying in the same area at 21, 000 feet. Captain Gandy would reply back that he understood. Upon receiving this clearance, Captain Gandy increased his altitude to 21, 000 feet. Now, both planes were at the same altitude, and both had estimated they would cross the Painted Desert Line at about 1031. The Painted Desert Line is a 173 mile long line between Utah and Arizona. Used by air traffic to provide information about where a flight was in uncontrolled airspace. A minute later, Flight 2 called in, making a similar estimate. The air traffic controllers now knew that two aircraft would likely be flying at the same altitude crossing the Painted Desert line at the same time. However, since it could be anywhere along this path, And they were in uncontrolled airspace, the responsibility to avoid collision fell into the hands of the pilots. So basically, they were in no man's land, it was not ATC's problem at all. Now, for unconfirmed reasons, both planes would take a more northerly path than what their flight plans had originally called for. It is believed that due to thunderstorms in the area to the south, which the pilots may have avoided to give passengers a better view of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, in their attempts to avoid these storms, they would have to make a series of turns. Which would put them on a collision course. And because of the tall dark clouds, the pilots likely could not see each other in an area where they were responsible for avoiding each other. As they were doing all this moving around near the canyon, it is believed that the planes may have passed the same cloud on opposite sides. At about 1030 AM, the two aircraft collided over the canyon. Later investigations determined that the DC 7 was banking to the right and pitching down at the time of collision. Suggesting that one or possibly both of the pilots spotted the constellation and attempted evasive action. The DC 7's upraised left wing smacked the top of the Constellation's vertical stabilizer and struck the fuselage immediately ahead of the stabilizer's base, causing the tail assembly to break away from the rest of the airframe. The propeller on the DC 7's left outboard, or number one engine, ripped a series of gashes into the bottom of the Constellation's fuselage. Decompression would have occurred from this damage, a theory that was mostly confirmed by the light debris, such as cabin furnishings and personal effects, being scattered over a large area. The separation of the tail assembly from the constellation resulted in them immediately losing control of the aircraft. Causing it to enter into a vertical terminal velocity dive, plunging into the Grand Canyon at an estimated speed of over 700 feet per second, or roughly 480 miles per hour. The constellation slammed into the north slope of a ravine on the northeast slope of Temple Butt, or Butte, however you say it, B U T T E, however the hell you say that. but, and basically disintegrated on impact, killing everybody on board. A large fire, fueled by aviation gasoline, ensued. The severed tail assembly, badly battered, but still somewhat recognizable. Had come to rest nearby. The DC 7's left wing to the left of the number one engine was so badly fucked up by the impact it was no longer capable of producing substantial lift. The engine had been seriously Fucked up too, and the combined loss of lift and propulsion left the crippled plane in a rapidly descending left spiral from which they would never be able to recover. Now the airspace over the canyon was not under any sort of radar observation. There was no homing beacons, cockpit recorders, or flight data recorders aboard either aircraft. They didn't have that shit back then. The last position reports received from the flights did not reflect their locations at the time of the collisions. And there was no credible witnesses to the collision itself or the subsequent crashes. The only sign of trouble was when United Company radio operators in Salt Lake City and San Francisco got a transmission from Flight 718. Which would be the last from either aircraft. Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Investigation Engineers later deciphered the transmission, which had been preserved on magnetic tape, as the voice of co pilot Robert Harms declaring, Salt Lake. 718, we are going in. The voice of Captain Shirley was heard in the background as presumably struggling with the controls to no avail. He implored the airplane to pull up, pull up. After neither flight reported their current position for some time, the two aircraft were declared to be missing and search and rescue procedures started. The wreckage was first seen later in the day near the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers by Henry and Palin Hudgen. These two were brothers who operated a small Grand Canyon Airlines. Like an air taxi service. During a trip early in the day, Palin had noted dense black smoke rising near Temple Butt, which was where the constellation went down. He had initially ignored it, assuming it was just brush being set ablaze by lightning. But! Once they heard about the missing airliners, Palin decided that what he had seen might just have been smoke from a crash. The two brothers would fly a Piper Tripacer into the canyon and look for the location of the smoke. They would eventually find the Constellation's remains and report it to authorities. The next day, the two men went out and found the wreckage of the DC 7. Numerous helicopter missions would eventually be flown down to the crash sites to find and attempt to identify victims as well as recover wreckage for accident analysis. Which, all of this was very difficult and dangerous because of the rugged terrain and the air currents in the area were Unpredictable and not the greatest, the airlines would eventually hire the Swiss Air Rescue and some Swiss mountain climbers to go down to the scene where the aircraft wreckage had crashed. They were sent down to gather the remains of the passengers and their personal belongings. This was given a shit ton of publicity in the U. S. news releases at the time because of the ruggedness of the terrain where the crashes occurred. And due to the force of the impacts, no bodies would be recovered intact? And positive identification of the remains was just not possible. On July 9th, a mass funeral for the victims of TWA Flight 2 was held at the Canyon South Rim. 29 unidentified victims of the United flight were buried in four coffins at the Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery. 76 of the 70 TWA passengers and crew are buried in a mass grave at Citizen's Cemetery in Flagstaff, Arizona. It would take them years following the accident before most of the wreckage was removed from the canyon. In fact, some of the aircraft is Still down there. Jack Parshall, a pilot and air crash investigator, would become the lead investigator from the Civil Aeronautics Board on the investigation into the accident. The investigation was not made easy due to the remoteness of the crash sites as well as the extent of the damage caused to the two planes and the lack of real time flight data. But, despite the considerable difficulties, the Civil Aeronautics Board experts were able to determine with a pretty good degree of certainty of what had transpired, and in the report issued the following statement as probable cause for the accident. The board determines that the probable cause of this mid air collision was that the pilots did not see each other in time to avoid the collision. It is not possible to determine why the pilots did not see each other, but the evidence suggests that it results from any one or a combination of the following factors. Intervening clouds reducing time for visual separation. Visual limitations due to cockpit visibility and preoccupation with normal cockpit duties. Preoccupation with matters unrelated to cockpit duties, such as attempting to provide the passengers with a more scenic view of the Grand Canyon area. Physiological limits to human vision reducing the time, opportunity to see and avoid the other aircraft or insufficiencies of enroute air traffic advisory information due to inadequacies of facilities and lack of personnel in air traffic control. In this report, weather and airworthiness of the two planes were thought to have played no role in the accident. Lacking any eyewitnesses and with some uncertainty regarding high altitude visibility at the time of collision, it was not possible to determine conclusively how much opportunity was available for either pilot to see and avoid each other. Neither flight crew was implicated in the findings of probable cause. Although, the decision by Captain Gandhi to cancel his IFR flight plan and fly 1, 000 on top was the likely cause of the accident. The investigation itself was pretty thorough, but the final report focused on technical issues and largely ignored human factors. Like, why were the airlines permitting their pilots to execute maneuvers solely intended to improve the passenger's view of the canyon? It would not be until the late 1970s that human factors would be as thoroughly investigated as technical matters following aerial mishaps. So, basically, to me what it sounds like is, person can fuck up and they wouldn't look at it like they would if, you know, something in the plane failed or whatever. At 128 dead, the Grand Canyon Collision became the deadliest U. S. commercial airline disaster and deadliest air crash on U. S. soil of any kind surpassing a United Airlines flight the year before. It would hold this record until December 16th, 1960. When there was a mid air collision in New York, which also involved United Airlines and TWA. However, it is still the deadliest aviation disaster in the state of Arizona, so it still has one record. The air traffic controller who had cleared Captain Gandy to a thousand on top was severely criticized as he had not advised Captains Gandy and Shirley about the potential for a traffic conflict even though he had to have known that it was a possibility. He was publicly blamed for the accident by both airlines and the press tore his ass apart. But he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing. The then assistant ATC director Charles Carmody testified during the investigation neither flight was legally under the control of ATC when they collided. The controller was not required to issue any sort of advisory to the pilots. And according to the Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Investigation Final Report. The controller had relayed a traffic advisory regarding flight 718 to TWA's ground radio operator. This TWA operator testified that Captain Gandy acknowledged the information on the United flight. And this accident really fucked up the public's confidence in air travel. At this point, travel by air had become routine for large corporations and people going on vacations. A lot of people were starting to choose flying over traveling by train. At the time, a congressional committee was reviewing domestic air travel as there was growing concerns over the number of accidents. However, little progress had been made in the state of a TC at the time of the Grand Canyon accident was still relying on method on methods they used. In the 1930s, the public would push for something to be done as more mid air collisions and near misses happened. Soon, congressional hearings would follow, and in 1957, increased funding was allowed to modernize the ATC, to hire and train more air traffic controllers, and get some more radar, and not just the military surplus they had been using. Control of American airspace was still split between the military. In the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the CAA was the agency in charge of air traffic, air traffic control at the time. They had no authority over military flights which could enter controlled airspace with no warning to other traffic. This resulted in a ton of collisions and near misses between civil and military planes. In 1958, United Airlines Flight 736 collided with an F 100 Super Saver fighter jet near Las Vegas, resulting in 49 fatalities. And again, public was pissed, and they demanded more shit be done. So Congress had more hearings, and eventually the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was passed. Which got rid of the CAA, and created the Federal Aviation Agency. Which is, yeah, it's, it's the FAA. They changed the name in 1966 to the Federal Aviation Administration that we know now. But, really, who the hell knows what FAA stood for. And it doesn't really matter if it's agency or administration, it's the same damn thing. The FAA was given total control over American airspace, including military activity. And as procedures in ATC facilities were modernized, mid air collisions gradually became less common. On April 22nd, 2014, the site of the crash was declared a National Historic Landmark, making it the first landmark for an event that happened in the air. The location is in a remote part of the canyon accessible only to hikers. And has been closed to the public since the 1950s. And that was the mid air collision over the Grand Canyon in 1956. Thanks for listening, and if you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your Apple choice. Or reach out to the show at historyisadisaster at gmail. com. Or through social media with comments or suggestions. Or, you know, you can just share the episode, cause sharing is caring, and if there was more caring in the world, maybe history wouldn't be a disaster. Thanks and goodbye.