Flying Tiger Flight 282 refers to the crash of a Lockheed Constellation aircraft, N6915C, shortly after take-off from San Francisco International Airport in the early morning hours of Thursday, December 24, 1964.
On Wednesday, December 23, 1964, Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Japan. Filled with a cargo of electronic equipment, bolts of fabric, women's scarves, bandannas, purses, and costume jewelry for the Christmas holiday, the craft was refueled and departed just after midnight with a crew of three, 41,000 pounds (19,000 kg) of cargo, 136 pounds (62 kg) of mail, and 5,000 gallons of high-octane aviation fuel.
The weather was that of heavy fog and rain. A large cold frontal system was moving onshore, and on the north coast of California heavy flooding was destroying homes. A Coast Guard helicopter had already been lost in these conditions.
Leaving just after midnight on December 24 from Runway 28, going northwest from the bay, flight 282 planned to head out over the ocean to circle and gain altitude, then travel east toward its destination of JFK International Airport in New York. Shortly after takeoff, however, the plane veered to the left of its planned course. The pilot, Jabez A. Richards, 49, of Bayhead, New Jersey, asked the tower for permission to change his radio setting from takeoff to departure frequency. With him were Daniel W. Hennessy, 33, of Hillsborough, California, as co-pilot, and Paul M. Entz, 37, of North Hollywood, California, as flight engineer. Seconds later, the plane vanished from the tower's radar scope.
The "Super Connie" crashed near the top of Sweeney Ridge in San Bruno, very close to the site of a Coast Guard radio station. All three crew members aboard were killed. No one on the ground was killed or injured.
The Civil Aeronautics Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was that the pilot, for undetermined reasons, deviated from departure course into an area of rising terrain, where downdraft activity and turbulence affected the ability of the craft to climb.
Famous quotes containing the words flying, tiger, line and/or flight:
“The savage soul of game is up at once—
The pack full-opening various, the shrill horn
Resounded from the hills, the neighing steed
Wild for the chase, and the loud hunter’s shout—
O’er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all
Mixed in mad tumult and discordant joy.”
—James Thomson (1700–1748)
“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere.”
—Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–1913)
“When we are high and airy hundreds say
That if we hold that flight they’ll leave the place,
While those same hundreds mock another day
Because we have made our art of common things ...”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)