Braniff Airways Flight 542
Investigators probe the wreckage of Braniff Airways Flight 542 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 29, 1959 |
| Summary | In-flight breakup |
| Site |
|
| Aircraft | |
| An L-188 Electra similar to that involved in the accident. This later crashed as LANSA Flight 502. | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-188A Electra |
| Operator | Braniff Airways |
| Registration | N9705C |
| Flight origin | Houston International Airport, Houston, Texas |
| 1st stopover | Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas |
| Last stopover | Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. |
| Destination | Idlewild Airport, New York City |
| Occupants | 34 |
| Passengers | 28 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 34 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Braniff Airways Flight 542 was a scheduled flight between Houston International Airport and Idlewild Airport in New York City. On September 29, 1959, during an uneventful flight en route to a scheduled stop at Dallas Love Field, the Lockheed L-188 Electra operating the flight broke apart in mid-air about 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Buffalo, Texas, killing everyone on board. Eyewitnesses on the ground saw and heard a loud explosion in the air and saw the aircraft plummet to the ground. The left wing broke off the airplane near the fuselage and landed more than a mile (2 km) from the rest of the wreckage.
The aircraft had been in commercial service for only nine days after delivery from the factory. Crash investigators combed through the wreckage in search of the cause of the breakup, but after six months, they had still not determined what caused the crash. As they were preparing to close the investigation as unsolved, Northwest Airlines Flight 710 crashed near Cannelton, Indiana. That aircraft was a seven-month-old Lockheed Electra, and witnesses described seeing it explode in flight before crashing to the ground. Investigators found that the entire right wing and portions of the left wing had broken off that aircraft while it was in flight.
The similarities between the two crashes led to the Federal Aviation Agency placing flight restrictions on the relatively new Electra until the cause of the crashes could be identified. It ordered Lockheed Corporation to reevaluate the aircraft's structural integrity and demonstrate its airworthiness. The subsequent investigation, involving over 250 engineers and technicians, found that when an Electra with damage to the mounting structures of one of the engines flew at high speeds or in turbulent conditions, a destructive phenomenon called "whirl mode wing flutter" could occur, leading to wing failure. After discovering the cause of the crashes, Lockheed launched a program to design structural changes to prevent whirl mode wing flutter and to retrofit all Electras already in service. The changes successfully resolved the issue, and modifications to the final aircraft were completed on July 5, 1961.