Flight and Explosion
The flight had originated at New York City's La Guardia Airport and made a scheduled stop in Chicago before continuing on to Denver's Stapleton Airfield. At Denver there was a crew change, and the captain who assumed command of the flight for the segments to Portland and Seattle, Lee Hall, was a World War II veteran.
The flight took off at 6:52 p.m. Mountain time. Eleven minutes later, Stapleton Airport tower controllers saw two bright lights suddenly appear in the sky north-northwest of the airport. Both lights were observed for thirty to forty-five seconds, and both fell to the ground at roughly the same speed. The controllers then saw a very bright flash originating at or near the ground, intense enough to illuminate the base of the clouds above the source of the flash. Upon observing the mysterious lights, the controllers quickly tried to determine if they were indications of an aircraft in distress and contacted all aircraft flying in the area; all flights were quickly accounted for except for United Flight 629.
Numerous telephone calls soon began coming in from farmers and other residents near the town of Longmont, who reported loud explosions and fiery debris falling from the nighttime sky -- the remains of Flight 629. Ground searchers who reached the crash site noted that all 44 people aboard the DC-6B had died instantly. The debris from the accident was scattered across six square miles of Weld County, Colorado.
There was early speculation that something other than a mechanical problem or pilot error was responsible. The November 2 edition of The New York Times reported a witness to the tragedy describing what he heard: "Conrad Hopp, a farmer who lives near the crash scene, said he and members of his family 'heard a big explosion — it sounded like a big bomb went off and I ran out and I saw a big fire right over the cattle corral. I hollered back to my wife that she'd better call the fire department and ambulance because a plane was going to crash. Then I turned around and it blew up in the air.'"
Read more about this topic: United Airlines Flight 629
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