Eastern Air Lines Flight 537

Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 was a domestic flight of Eastern Air Lines a Douglas DC -4 with the aircraft ID N88727 on the way from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, DC. NX- 26927 was a Lockheed P -38 Lightning on a test flight of the Bolivian government, which was flown by Erick Rios Bridaux by the Bolivian Air Force. The two aircraft collided on November 1, 1949 at an altitude of about 300 feet, about eight hundred yards southwest of the threshold of the start and runway number 3 of the Washington National Airports. When the aircraft accident every 55 inmates were killed aboard the DC-4 and the test pilot of the P-38 seriously injured.

The duty on the day crew of the Towers testified that had taken off P-38 from the runway 3, north of the Pentagon had taken a left turn, circled over Arlington and then was returned due to engine problems and had asked for permission to land. The air traffic controllers reported the Bolivian pilots into the left traffic pattern, but it flew on the south side of the airport and turned into a long direct landing approach, the same time as Flight 537 its shorter final approach began. The air traffic controller then radioed Flight 537 and ordered to the left turn off. The DC-4 began with the left-hander, as the P-38, which flew much faster, the airliner caught about 800 meters southwest of the threshold of runway 3.

The DC-4 was torn apart by the left propeller of the P-38 just before the edge of the wing. The rear section of the aircraft crashed on the western bank of the Potomac River; other parts were later found at the depot of the Potomac Railroad and a highway nearby. The front part of the plane fell into the river, as well as the Lockheed.

Rios, the pilot of the P-38, disagreed before the investigators of the Civil Aeronautics Board ( CAB) a majority of the statements of the Tower crew. He claimed to have lifted off from runway 36. He was in constant contact with the control tower under the call Bolivian 927 and it was the actual release of the runway 3 was issued. The statement of the air traffic controllers in the tower and a military controller that followed the radio traffic on the frequency at the Bolling Air Force Base, as well as some other contradictions in Rios ' statement meant that the CAB rejected the version of the P-38 pilots. Since Rios spoke the English language well and understood has not assumed that language difficulties in the aircraft accident played a role.

The CAB noted that the primary putative causes of the accident were the pilot's discretion, to land without proper permission to land and its general insufficient vigilance in holding out for the rest of the traffic. The CAB also found that the air traffic controllers in the airport tower had failed to inform the pilot of Flight 537 earlier about the critical situation developing. The report noted, however, that even in the event that Flight 537 had been alerted earlier, might have been too late because of the position of the P- 38 to avoid the collision, since the actions of the pilot of Flight 537 Rios only a few seconds to peel off left.

Among the victims of Flight 537 were Congressman George J. Bates, the cartoonist of the magazine The New Yorker Helen Hokinson and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy.

Swell

• Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 537 (English)
• Aviation Safety Network report on Flight 537 (English)

• Traffic accident in 1949
• Aircraft Accident
• Aviation (United States)