This extraordinary silent home movie shot by a member of the Civil Air Patrol shows the aftermath of two plane crashes. At :37, you will see rescuers removing a body from the first crash scene. Debris is spread over a small area. This aircraft appears to be a single engine trainer belonging to the military. At 1:00, in another scene shot on a different day, you will see wreckage from a much larger aircraft strewn over a hillside. At 1:32, you can make out the wing with the number NC60526. Looking this up on the wreck database, this turns out to be California Arrow Airlines C-47, which crashed on Wednesday 7 December 1949 near Vallejo, California. Nine people were killed in the incident, which was described this way in the accident report: “The flight departed Burbank at 14:20 for Oakland and Sacramento. Following takeoff from Oakland at 16:56, the flight cruised five miles northwest of the Oakland Airport for seven minutes while waiting for receipt of an instrument flight clearance which provided for a cruising altitude of 4,000 feet to Sacramento. The flight then proceeded on course, and at 17:08 reported over the Richmond Radio Range Intersection, 16 miles northwest of Oakland, stating that it would be over the Fairfield Radio Range Station at 17:23. This was the last communication received from the flight. Proceeding along Amber Airway 8, the aircraft began to descend for unknown reasons. The aircraft struck a hill at an elevation of 782 feet or approximately 3,200 feet below the flights assigned cruising altitude.”
PROBABLE CAUSE: “Failure of the flight to fly at the assigned altitude on an instrument flight plan, which resulted in the aircraft striking a hill obscured by clouds.”
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
