31 December 1985: At 5:14 p.m., CST, a Douglas DC-3C, N711Y, owned by Eric Hilliard Nelson, crash-landed in a field near DeKalb, Texas. The airplane struck a wire and several trees and was extensively damaged. The airplane was on fire. The pilot and co-pilot escaped through cockpit windows, but all seven passengers, including the owner, singer Rick Nelson, died. N711Y was a 1944 Douglas C-47A Skytrain twin engine military transport which had been converted to a DC-3C in 1959. At one time the DC-3 had been owned by the DuPont family, and later by singer Jerry Lee Lewis. At 5:08 p.m., the pilot informed Air Traffic Control that he had a problem and was going to divert from the intended destination of Dallas, Texas, to Texarkana. At 5:11 p.m., ATC received a call from N711Y saying that there was smoke in the cockpit. It was then seen on radar to be descending. The airplane disappeared from radar at 5:14 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane descending in a left turn to line up with a farm field. It was trailing smoke and small pieces of metal fell off which started several small fires. The DC-3 struck two power wires suspended about 30 feet (9 meters) above the ground, a utility pole and several trees. The pilot and co-pilot, who were both severely burned, gave differing statements as to what had occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that there had been an in-flight fire in the passenger cabin which had probably started in the on-board cabin heater. The board concluded that the pilot in command did not follow proper procedures or check lists. The first DC-3, a Douglas Sleeper Transport, or DST, built for American Airlines, took off for the first time at Santa Monica, California, 17 December 1935. In 1940, Douglas Aircraft Company began producing the C-47 Skytrain for the United States military. This was a military transport based on the civil DC-3. Douglas built 10,047 C-47s at Santa Monica and Long Beach, California, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 5,254 of those were the C-47A variant (including Navy R4D-1s). The C-47A was 64 feet, 5 inches (19.634 meters) long, with a wingspan of 95 feet (28.956 meters). It had an overall height of 16 feet, 11 inches (5.156 meters). The standard engines were 1,829.4-cubic-inch-displacement (30.0 liter) air-cooled, supercharged Pratt and Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp two-row 14-cylinder radial engines, producing 1,200 horsepower each, and turning three-bladed propellers. (N711Y had been re-engined with R-1830-75 engines.) The C-47A weighed 16,970 pounds (7,697.5 kilograms) empty and had a maximum takeoff weight of 26,000 pounds (11,793.4 kilograms). The maximum speed was 229 miles per hour (368.5 kilometers per hour) at 8,500 feet (2,591 meters), and cruising speed was 185 miles per hour (297.7 kilometers per hour) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). The service ceiling was 24,100 feet (7,346 meters). The C-47A served with the United States Air Force until 1971. Hundreds of C-47s and DC-3s are still operational, worldwide. r/max
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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