List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Commercial Aircraft - 1948

1948

• January 30 – The BSAA Star Tiger disappearance: an Avro Tudor IV disappears without a trace en route from the Azores to Bermuda with 31 on board. The loss of the aircraft along with the 1949 BSAA Star Ariel disappearance remain unsolved to this day, with the resulting speculation helping to develop the Bermuda Triangle legend.
• March 12 – Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into Mount Sanford in the Alaska Territory, killing 30; wreckage was not located until 1999.
• April 5 – In the 1948 Gatow air disaster, a British European Airways Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes near RAF Gatow, Berlin after a collision with a Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter; all 14 people on board the Viking die, as well as the Soviet pilot.
• April 15 – Pan Am Flight 1-10, a Lockheed Constellation, crashes while on approach to Shannon Airport; of the 31 on board, only one survives.
• April 21 – British European Airways Flight S200P, a Vickers VC.1 Viking, crashes into Irish Law Mountain in Scotland due to pilot error; all on board survive.
• June 17 – United Airlines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania after errors in attempting to extinguish what was believed to have been an onboard fire; all 43 on board die.
• July 4 – The Northwood mid-air collision between a Scandinavian Airlines System-operated Douglas DC-6 and an RAF Avro York kills all 39 passengers and crew in Britain's worst mid-air collision.
• July 17 – Miss Macao, a Catalina seaplane operated by a Cathay Pacific subsidiary, over the Pearl River delta from Macau to Hong Kong, is hijacked with 23 passengers and three crew on board by a group attempting to rob the passengers; following a struggle in the cockpit, a crash kills all on board except one passenger, later identified as the lead hijacker; this is the earliest known airliner hijacking.
• August 29 – Northwest Airlines Flight 421, a Martin 2-0-2, crashes near Winona, Minnesota due to structural failure of a wing, killing all 37 on board in the worst ever accident involving the Martin 2-0-2. This crash is also the first loss of a 2-0-2.
• September 2 – The 1948 Lutana crash; Australian National Airways Flight 331, a Douglas DC-3, crashes into high terrain near Nundle, New South Wales, killing all 13 people on board.
• October 2 – In the Bukken Bruse disaster, a Det Norske Luftfartsselskap Short Sandringham flying boat, crashes upon landing in Trondheim, Norway; 19 are killed; Bertrand Russell is among the 24 survivors.
• October 20 – In the 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster, a Lockheed Constellation named Nijmegen crashes near Prestwick, Scotland, killing 40.
• December 28 – In the 1948 Airborne Transport DC-3 (DST) disappearance, NC16002 disappears without a trace off the coast of Florida with 32 on board.