At midnight on Friday, November 17, 1955, a Peninsular Air Transport Douglas C-54-DC (DC-4) charter aircraft en route from Seattle-Boeing Field International Airport to Newark International Airport via Billings and Chicago crashes after takeoff into Boulevard Park, a residential neighborhood south of Seattle. Twenty eight passengers die and 46 survive the mishap. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board and Civil Aviation Administration will determine the crash was caused by a series of aircraft engine maintenance errors and omissions by the Seattle Aircraft Repair Company rather than structural failure or pilot error.
The Skymaster
The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is the military version of the DC-4 passenger aircraft, developed in 1938. The Skymaster began service with the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) on February 14, 1942, shuttling passengers and cargo across the North Atlantic between the U.S. and Great Britain during World War II. The transport, considered large in its day, was approximately 94 feet long with a 118-foot wingspan, and powered by four 1,450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2000 "Twin Wasp" engines. At a cruising speed of 207 mph, the C-54 had a range of 4,200 miles and could accommodate up to 80 passengers. The Douglas Aircraft Company produced 1,163 Skymasters that served the Air Force and the Navy (designated R5D) until 1975 when that model aircraft was fully retired. Another 79 DC-4s were produced post-war for commercial air carriers. The venerable C-54 was replaced by much larger and faster military transports, such as the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II and the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Many of the surplused C-54s were purchased at a nominal price by commercial air carriers and continued hauling passengers and freight well into the jet age.
Peninsular Air Transport Company (PATC) was an irregular service air carrier operation based in Miami Springs, Florida. Much of their charter business involved the domestic movement of military personnel during the 1940's and the 1950's.
On Friday, November 17, 1955, a Douglas C-54-DC aircraft, registration No. N88852, operated by PATC, was sitting on the tarmac at Seattle-Boeing Field International Airport (now King County International Airport) preparing for a cross-country flight to Newark, New Jersey, with refueling stops at Billings, Montana and Chicago. A group of soldiers, who had just returned from South Korea on the Navy transport USNS General R. L. Howze (T-AP-134), pooled enough money to charter the aircraft to fly them home for Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 24.
PATC Flight 17K was scheduled to depart at 8:30 p.m. but was hindered by heavy snowfall which delayed the arrival of the passengers and necessitated de-icing the aircraft before its departure. The crew of the C-54 was Captain William J. McDougall, age 40, pilot; First Officer Fred C. Hall, 30, copilot; and James O. Adams, 34, steward. Also onboard the flight were Edward V. McGrath, 29, a newly hired PATC pilot, his wife, Virginia, 28, and their three children, Richard, 8, Thomas, 5, and Mary Ellen, 4. The McGrath family was deadheading from Oakland, California, to Miami.
Anatomy of a Disaster
At 11:32 p.m., Flight 17K left the passenger terminal and taxied toward Runway 13 to wait in line behind other flights for takeoff. At 11:58 p.m., the C-54 started to roll down the runway. Immediately after liftoff, Captain McDougall retracted the landing gear and the plane began to climb over the Duwamish River. At an altitude of approximately 300 feet, the outside engine on the right wing (designated No.4 engine), began to surge and McDougall's efforts to reduce power and feather the propeller proved unsuccessful. (Feathering a variable-pitch propeller means rotating the blades parallel to the airflow to minimize drag.)
The drag created by the unfeathered propeller immediately drew the aircraft to the right and it began to stall. The C-54 clipped a tall evergreen tree and felled a utility pole before crash-landing in a nose-high attitude near the intersection of Des Moines Memorial Way S and S 120th Street. The plane demolished the garage, containing a pickup truck, and damaged the house belonging to Samuel Montgomery, 1829 S 120th Street, before running into an oak tree in the back yard of Colin F. Dearing, Sr., 12010 Des Moines Memorial Way S, and exploding. The tail section of the aircraft broke away during the crash landing, allowing most of the survivors to escape the ensuing gasoline fire.
Within minutes after the crash, fire and rescue teams and equipment were dispatched to the scene by Boeing Field, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and the Seattle Fire Department. The gasoline fire was quickly extinguished and the survivors cared for by neighbors until medical assistance arrived. An unseasonable snowfall hampered many of the responding agencies, but ambulances, volunteer firefighters, police, sheriff's deputies, and state patrol officers soon arrived at the scene en mass. All the survivors received injuries of varying degree and were taken to Seattle-area hospitals for medical attention, Harborview Hospital receiving the lion's share. No one on the ground was injured or killed in the mishap, however, both the Dearing and Montgomery properties sustained substantial damage.
King County Deputy Coroners, firefighters and other emergency personnel probed the smoking wreckage for crash victims while scores of spectators looked on. When recovered, the bodies were transported to the King County Morgue at Harborview Hospital for positive identification. Since most of the victims had been burned beyond recognition, Army dental records and fingerprints were used to positively identify the dead.
Aftermath and Findings
The accident occurred in the residential neighborhood of Boulevard Park, approximately two and a half miles southwest of Boeing Field and at an elevation 300 feet higher than the runway. It happened two minutes after takeoff and the pilots had no chance to return to the airport. Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) and Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigators had the wreckage removed to a hangar at Boeing Field for a detailed examination. Fire had destroyed major portions of the aircraft but an inspection of the remaining pieces and parts disclosed no evidence of structural failure prior to impact. Teardown inspections of the power plants revealed that engines and propellers Nos. 1, 2 and 3 had not been factors in the accident.
Power plant No. 4 received the closest scrutiny. Both pilots stated that it was clearly that engine and propeller which caused the C-54 to crash. McDougall had had difficulty starting No. 4 engine in Billings on Sunday, November 13, 1955, and after arrival at McChord Air Force Base, he ferried the plane to Boeing Field. There, he contacted Seattle Aircraft Repair, Inc., under contract to perform repairs and maintenance for PATC, to correct several discrepancies noted during the flight. The investigation determined that the malfunctions of power plant No. 4, due to faulty installation of the propeller after repairs, clearly caused the accident.
On Thursday, January 26, 1956, a CAB hearing was held at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle to determine responsibility for the deadly crash. Over the next two days, a five-person panel of experts heard testimony from 24 witnesses concerning the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic event.
The official CAB Accident Investigation Report, dated May 3, 1956, stated: "Poor maintenance procedures, omissions during maintenance, and lack of proper inspection were evident in the maintenance work performed by Seattle Aircraft Repair, Inc. The improper indexing of the No. 4 propeller blades (position of a propeller on the crankshaft) occurred during the work at Seattle. Propeller drag from the over-speeding propeller, greatly increased by the incorrect indexing of the blades, made continued flight difficult, if not impossible. The aircraft was unairworthy following the Seattle maintenance work."
The CAB report concluded: "The board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the excessively high drag resulting from the improperly indexed propeller blades and inability to feather. These conditions were the result of a series of maintenance errors and omissions" (Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Investigation Report: Peninsular Air Transport, Douglas C-54-DC, N 88852, Seattle, Washington, November 17, 1955).
Crash Victims:
William P. Anderson, age 22
Peter V. Black, age 22
Vincent E. Borders, age 20
Hobart L. Brown, age 24
Robert J. Caruth, age 21
John J. Clesiak, age 19
Thuman C. Dillo, age 19
Harry B. Duncan, age 23
Frank J. Ernst, age 39
Robert F. Hayes, age 23
Talmas A. Jackson, age 30
August Kaukes, age 34
Harry Mangino, Jr., age 19
Edward V. McGrath, age 29
John K. Moore, age 20
Robert E. Norden, age 19
James Parker, age 25
James A. Peterson, age 18
Arthur A. Roehling, age 18
Desmus Russell, Jr., age 27
Carl Shelton, Jr., age 21
Newell T. Seeley, age 25
John Stanley Thomas, age 19 (d. November 23, 1955)
Ronald E. Thornton, age 19
Ashton P. Truitt, Jr., age 21
Donald G Tuma, age 20
Victor J. Tylinski, age 20
William W. Wojick, age 30
