Collision
At about 10:30 AM the flight paths of the two aircraft intersected over the canyon, and they collided at a closing angle of about 25 degrees. Post-crash analysis determined that the United DC-7 was banked to the right and pitched down at the time of the collision, suggesting that one or possibly both of the United pilots saw the TWA Constellation seconds before impact and that evasive action was attempted.
The DC-7's upraised left wing clipped the top of the Constellation's vertical stabilizer and struck the fuselage immediately ahead of the stabilizer's base, causing the empennage (tail section) to break away from the rest of the airframe. Simultaneously, the propeller on the DC-7's left outboard (number one) engine chopped a series of gashes into the bottom of the Constellation's fuselage. Explosive decompression would have instantly occurred from the combined damage, a theory that was substantiated by light debris (e.g., cabin furnishings and personal effects) being scattered over a large area.
The separation of the empennage (tail) from the Constellation resulted in an immediate loss of control and the aircraft went into a near-vertical terminal velocity dive. Plunging into the canyon at an estimated speed of more than 700 feet (213.4 metres) per second (475 mph), the plane crashed inverted on the northeast slope of Temple Butte and disintegrated on impact. An intense fire ensued. The severed empennage, battered but still in a recognizable form, came to rest nearby.
The DC-7's left wing outboard of the number one engine was mangled by the impact and was no longer capable of producing substantial lift. The engine itself had been inoperably damaged as well, and the combined loss of lift and propulsion put the crippled aircraft into a rapidly descending left spiral from which no recovery was possible. The Mainliner slammed into the south wall of Chuar Butte and burned.
Read more about this topic: 1956 Grand Canyon Mid-air Collision
Famous quotes containing the word collision:
“I know my fate. One day my name will be tied to the memory of something monstrous—a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision invoked against everything that had previously been believed, demanded, sanctified. I am no man, I am dynamite!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“When the wind carries a cry which is meaningful to human ears, it is simpler to believe the wind shares with us some part of the emotion of Being than that the mysteries of a hurricane’s rising murmur reduce to no more than the random collision of insensate molecules.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)