Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114

U.S. air crash

Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114
Accident
The accident aircraft in January 1959 with old registration
Date	November 15, 1964
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Clark County, 2.7 miles (4.3 km) west of Sloan, Nevada 35°56′26″N 115°15′53″W / 35.9405°N 115.2647°W / 35.9405; -115.2647
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Fairchild F-27
Operator	Bonanza Air Lines
Registration	N745L (formerly N145L)
Flight origin	Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Destination	McCarran International Airport
Passengers	26
Crew	3
Fatalities	29
Survivors	0

Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 was a Fairchild F-27 turboprop airliner flying out of Phoenix, Arizona, to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, on the evening of November 15, 1964.

At 8:25 p.m., during a landing approach in poor weather conditions, it crashed into the top of a hill in open desert country about 8 miles (13 km) SSW of Las Vegas. All 29 aboard -- 26 passengers and a crew of three -- died instantly when the plane exploded on impact, no more than 10 feet (3 m) below a ridge crest. Although this was not the only incident involving a Bonanza Air Lines airplane, it is the only crash with fatalities during the airline's 23-year history.

Media reports initially stated that 28 had died, but these were corrected when the body of a very young girl was found amid the debris. The rugged terrain and snowdrifts surrounding the crash site initially prevented ground vehicles from reaching the wreckage, so four helicopters assisted in the recovery efforts. Eventually a narrow, unimproved road one mile long that climbs up a ridge and terminates at the hilltop crash site was built to assist in salvage operations; it can still be seen in current aerial photos.

Pilot Henry "Hank" Fitzpatrick, a veteran with over 11,000 hours experience, was initially blamed for flying too low due to misreading the approach chart for McCarran International, but an investigation years later showed that the chart was marked in a non-standard, and possibly confusing, manner. Some heirs of the crash victims sued the publisher of the chart, but before a verdict was reached in the wrongful death lawsuit the chart company, Jeppesen, agreed to pay the plaintiffs US$490,000.

References

Incident summary at baa-acro.com Archived June 29, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
^ Bates, Warren (November 15, 1999). "Hunt for Lost F-27". reviewjournal.com. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on 2003-05-08. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
Bonanza Air Lines accidents and incidents at the Aviation Safety Network
"Plane Crash Takes Lives Of 28 People". The Free-Lance Star. Associated Press. November 16, 1964. p. 1. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
^ "Bodies Recovered At Air Crash Site". The Victoria Advocate. Associated Press. November 17, 1964. p. 1. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
"ACME Mapper aerial view of crash site". Mapper.acme.com. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
"Aetna v. Jeppesen lawsuit, appeal ruling". openjurist.org. F2d (642): 339. April 20, 1981. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network

External links

Aircraft Accident Report for Flight 114 via baa-acro.com
Gallery of 26 historic and present-day photos of crash site from the Las Vegas Sun
Photograph of wreckage at the crash site at bonanzaairlines.com
Pre-crash photograph of the Fairchild F-27 involved in the incident from the Ed Coates collection
Color pre-crash photograph of the accident aircraft (with former registration number of N145L)
Names of passengers and crew Archived 2011-09-23 at the Wayback Machine

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1964 (1964)
Jan 13 Savage Mountain B-52 crashJan 28 T-39 shootdownFeb 25 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304Feb 29 British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802/6Mar 1 Paradise Airlines Flight 901AApr 5 Machida F-8 crashApr 17 Middle East Airlines Flight 444May 7 Pacific Air Lines Flight 773May 20 Philippine Air Lines Flight F26Jun 20 Civil Air Transport Flight 106Jul 9 United Air Lines Flight 823Sep 2 Aeroflot Flight 721Oct 2 Mt. Alcazaba UTA Douglas DC-6 crashNov 15 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114Nov 20 Linjeflyg Flight 267VNov 23 TWA Flight 800Dec 24 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282
1963 ◄ ► 1965

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1964 (1964)

Jan 13 Savage Mountain B-52 crashJan 28 T-39 shootdownFeb 25 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304Feb 29 British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802/6Mar 1 Paradise Airlines Flight 901AApr 5 Machida F-8 crashApr 17 Middle East Airlines Flight 444May 7 Pacific Air Lines Flight 773May 20 Philippine Air Lines Flight F26Jun 20 Civil Air Transport Flight 106Jul 9 United Air Lines Flight 823Sep 2 Aeroflot Flight 721Oct 2 Mt. Alcazaba UTA Douglas DC-6 crashNov 15 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114Nov 20 Linjeflyg Flight 267VNov 23 TWA Flight 800Dec 24 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282

1963 ◄ ► 1965

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 (January 6 1960) Capital Airlines Flight 20 (January 18 1960) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 (March 1960) Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 (July 1960) World Airways Flight 830 (September 1960)* Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 (October 4 1960) Cal Poly football team (October 29 1960) New York mid-air collision (December 1960)
1961	Goldsboro B-52 crash (January 24 1961) American Airlines Flight 1502 (January 28 1961) Yuba City B-52 crash (March 1961) United Air Lines Flight 859 (July 11 1961) Alaska Airlines Flight 779 (July 21 1961) TWA Flight 529 (September 1 1961) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 (September 17 1961) Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 (November 8 1961) Cincinnati Zantop DC-4 crash (November 14 1961)
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 (March 1962) Continental Airlines Flight 11 (May 1962) Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 (July 1962) United Air Lines Flight 297 (November 23 1962) Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 (November 30 1962)
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 (January 1963) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 (February 1963) Camden PA-24 (March 1963) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 (June 1963) Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 (July 1963) Pan Am Flight 214 (December 1963)
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 crash (January 1964) Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 (February 1964) Paradise Airlines Flight 901A (March 1964) Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 (May 1964) United Air Lines Flight 823 (July 1964) Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 (November 1964) Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 (December 1964)
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita (January 1965) Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 (February 1965) Pan Am Flight 843 (June 1965) Continental Airlines Flight 12 (July 1 1965) Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 (July 23 1965) United Air Lines Flight 389 (August 1965) American Airlines Flight 383 (November 8 1965) United Air Lines Flight 227 (November 11 1965) Carmel mid-air collision (December 1965)
1966	NASA T-38 crash (February 1966) American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D (April 1966) Braniff International Airways Flight 250 (August 1966) West Coast Airlines Flight 956 (October 1966)
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 (March 5 1967) TWA Flight 553 (March 9 1967) West Coast Airlines Flight 720 (March 10 1967) Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 (March 30 1967) Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 (June 1967) Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 (July 1967) Lake Erie skydiving disaster (August 1967) TWA Flight 159 (November 6 1967) X-15 Flight 3-65-97 (November 15 1967) TWA Flight 128 (November 20 1967)
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 (March 1968) Braniff International Airways Flight 352 (May 3 1968) Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 (May 22 1968) Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 (August 1968) Northeast Airlines Flight 946 (October 1968) Japan Air Lines Flight 2 (November 22 1968) Pan Am Flight 281 (November 24 1968) Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 (December 2 1968) Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 (December 24 1968) Pan Am Flight 799 (December 26 1968) Ozark Air Lines Flight 982 (December 27 1968) North Central Airlines Flight 458 (December 27 1968)
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 (January 6 1969) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 (January 13 1969) United Air Lines Flight 266 (January 18 1969) Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 (February 1969) Prinair Flight 277 (March 5 1969)* Delta Air Lines Flight 821 (March 25 1969) TWA Flight 5787 (July 1969) Newton Cessna 172 crash (August 1969) Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 (September 1969) Mohawk Airlines Flight 411 (November 1969)
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place in a U.S. territory. 1950–1959 ◄ 1960–1969 ► 1970–1979

Categories: