1955 newspaper DC-4 airplane DEADLIEST US AIRPLANE CRASH 66 dead LARAMIE Wyoming - inv # 4F-334

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SEE PHOTO(s) - COMPLETE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER, the York Dispatch (PA) dated Oct 7, 1955. This original newspaper contains prominent headings with news of the United Airlines Flight 409 crash in LARAMIE, Wyoming. That crash was the deadliest scheduled airline accident in US aviation history as of 1955. 

 
United Airlines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight which originated in New York, New York. The final flight destination was San Francisco, California, with stops in Chicago, Denver and Salt Lake City. The aircraft operating the service, a Douglas DC-4 propliner, registration N30062, crashed into Medicine Bow Peak, near Laramie, Wyoming, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members). The victims included five female members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and military personnel. At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in the history of American commercial aviation. Another 66 lives had been lost earlier that year in the March 22 crash in Hawaii of a United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster military transport aircraft, and 66 had also died in the mid-air collision of two United States Air Force C-119G Flying Boxcars over West Germany on August 11, placing the three crashes in a three-way tie as the deadliest aviation incidents in 1955.

Flight 409 left New York, New York one hour and 11 minutes late. Routine crew changes were made in Chicago and Denver. Flight 409 departed Denver, Colorado at 6:33 a.m. on October 6, 1955, 83 minutes after its scheduled departure time. The assigned path the airliner was expected to fly was along airways V-4 Denver to Laramie, Wyoming V-118 to Rock River, Wyoming radio, V-6 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and V-32 to a landing in Salt Lake City. The flight was operating under Visual Flight Rules and was assigned a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Because the aircraft was not pressurized, the altitude was chosen to keep the passengers and crew from experiencing the discomfort that flying higher could cause. The route assigned to the airliner was specifically designed to allow safe passage at 10,000 feet over the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains.

An expected position report from the United crew, scheduled for 8:11 a.m. while over Rock Springs, was not received, and repeated attempts to make radio contact with flight 409 were met with no response. With the airliner's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was alerted to the missing aircraft. No radar was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft.


Recovery of the widely scattered remains of the victims was extremely challenging due to the difficult terrain at the crash site. At the base of the almost perpendicular cliff where the aircraft hit, movement was hindered by a wide talus of weathered, fragmented rock and large boulders, all piled loosely on a steep slope. Mountaineers doing the recovery work also had to be constantly wary of rock falls that might be triggered by the activities of those above them on the cliff face. Cold weather and occasional snow also played a role in impeding recovery efforts. The recovery of human remains was not completed until the evening of October 11, 1955, five full days after the accident.

Prior to the loss of United 409, the deadliest scheduled airline accident in U.S. history was the June 1950 disappearance of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 over Lake Michigan, when 58 died. The 66 lives lost on Medicine Bow Peak remained the highest death toll on a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. for less than a year. In June 1956 two airliners, a Super Constellation and a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people.

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