Alaska Airlines Flight 779: Difference between revisions

| name = Alaska Airlines Flight 779

| image = Everts Air Cargo out of ANC (6479959261).jpg

| caption = A Douglas DC-6, the aircraft type involved in the accident

| date = July 21, = {{start date|1961|07|21}}

| summary = Crashed[[Controlled flight into terrain]] short of runway

| site = [[Eareckson Air Station|Shemya Air Force Base]], [[Shemya]], [[Aleutian Islands]], [[Alaska]], [[United States]]

| crewoccupants = 6

| fatalitiespassengers = 60

| stopover0operator = [[Travis Air ForceAlaska BaseAirlines]]

| destinationstopover0 = [[TachikawaTravis Air Force AirfieldBase]]

'''Alaska Airlines Flight 779''' was a chartercontract cargo flight that crashedoperated on approach21 toJuly [[Eareckson1961 Airby Station|Shemyaan Air[[Alaska Force BaseAirlines]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19610721-0|title=ASN Aircraft accident [[Douglas DC-6A N6118C Shemya AFB, AK (SYA)|last=Ranter|first=Harro|website=aviation-safety.net|access-date=2017-04-17}}</ref>]]

The DC-66A was chartered by the [[Military Air Transport Service]] to carry cargo from Travis Air Force Base to Tachikawa, Japan with refueling stopovers in [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]] and [[Shemya|Shemya.]] . On July 20, the flight departed Everett without cargo en route to Travis Air Force Base. Upon arrival in Travis military personnel loaded 25,999 pounds (11,793 &nbsp;kg) of cargo onto the aircraft under the supervision of the flight engineer.<ref name="Page 2">[[:en:wikisource:Page:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf/2|CAB Final report, p. 2]]</ref> The flight then departed Travis en route to Alaska, for the purpose of refueling and and picking up the navigator from Anchorage. It took 8 hours and 59 minutes for the flight to arrive at Anchorage from Travis. The aircraft was at Anchorage Airport for an hour and 8 minutes. The time from takeoff in Anchorage to the crash was 6 hours and 30 minutes. In Anchorage, the crew was given weather information for the route to Shemya but were not notified of the approach and field lighting deficiencies.<ref name="Page 2" />

Flight 779 took off from Anchorage at 19:40 en route to SheymaShemya on an instrument flight plan. At 00:45 the flight radioed SheymaShemya air traffic control; reporting their position as 55° 46' North and 179° 08' East at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The flight was 100 miles from SheymaShemya 43 minutes later. At 01:45 the flight made radar contact with the airport, at an altitude of 5,500 feet and 18 miles north-northeast of the destination. The air traffic controller reported that the flight entered the [[Instrument landing system glide path|glidepath]] and stayed on the correct approach for runway 10, but two miles from touchdown the flight was 10-1510–15 feet below the ideal glidepath, so he instructed the crew to ""ease the aircraft up"; but the crew failed to correct the position. One mile from touchdown the aircraft was 30-4030–40 feet below the glidepath, to which the controller again instructed the flight crew to "bring the aircraft up." Despite the warnings the flight still maintained the current path with no corrections to the altitude. The flight was still above the minimum safe altitude, and when the flight began to descend rapidly the controller assumed that the pilots switched to a visual approach.<ref name="Page 2" /><ref name="Page 3" /> At 02:11 [[Alaska Time Zone|Alaska time]] the flight crashed 200 feet short of the runway in SheymaShemya, killing all six crew members on board.<ref name="Page 1">[[:en:wikisource:Page:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf/1|CAB Final report, p. 1]]</ref>

Wind ofat speeds atof 20 knots were present at an altitude of approximately 500 feet. At 02:12, when the observer of the U. S. Weather Bureau was notified, the weather conditions as follows were recorded: <blockquote>"Indefinite 200-foot variable ceiling; visibility 3/4 mile variable, fog; temperature 45°; dewpoint 45°, wind south-southeast 8 knots; altimeter setting 29.84; ceiling 100 feet variable to 300 feet, visibility 1/2 mile variable to one mile."<ref name="Page 3">[[s:Page:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf/3|CAB Final report, p. 3]]</ref></blockquote>

The investigation revealed that the aircraft was in full working order when it crashed, in line with federal regulations and company procedures. All four engines whenwere running when it crashed. Fuel management logs and main tank gauges showed that there was adequate supply of fuel to the engines prior to the crash. Control surfaces and aircraft structures were shown to be functional prior to the crash with no evidence of mechanical malfunction.<ref name="Page 7">[[:en:wikisource:Page:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf/7|CAB Final report, p. 7]]</ref>

The investigation revealed that the approach lights for the runway were not lit on the night of the crash. The pilot could not have knowknown that only one strobe light was lit because the air traffic controller failed to adequately inform of the status of the runway lights.<ref name="Page 8">[[:en:wikisource:Page:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf/8|CAB Final report, p. 8]]</ref><ref name="Page 9"/>[[:en:wikisource:Page:CAB AccidentThe landing Reportwould be illegal under current FAA regulations, Alaskabut Airlineswas Flightnot 779at the time.pdf<ref>{{Cite web|url=https:/9/www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.list/parentTopicID/63/display/current/changeNumber/0/currentPage/2/sortResults/false/sortColumn/dateIssued/sortOrder/DESC|CABtitle=Advisory FinalCirculars report,– p.Airport 9]]Lighting|website=www.faa.gov|language=en-us|access-date=2017-04-23}}</ref>

{{cite news|url=|title=[[:c:File:CAB Accident Report, Alaska Airlines Flight 779.pdf|Aircraft Accident Report. Alaska Airlines, Inc., Douglas DC-6A, N 6118C. Shemya, Alaska. July 21, 1961.]]|date=1962-10-10|publisher=[[Civil Aeronautics Board]]|language=en}}

[[Category:Accidents{{Aviation accidents and incidents involvingin the United States in the airliners]]1960s}}

[[Category:AirlinerAlaska Airlines accidents and incidents in the United States|779]]