National Airlines Flight 967
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | November 16, 1959 |
| Type | Bombing (suspected, but not proven) |
| Site | Gulf of Mexico |
| Fatalities | 42 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-7B |
| Operator | National Airlines |
| Tail number | N4891C |
| Passengers | 36 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Survivors | 0 |
National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft which disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. All 42 onboard were presumed killed in the accident.
[edit] Details of accident
The flight originated in Miami at 10:22 PM the previous evening, landed at Tampa at 11:00 PM, and departed for New Orleans at 11:22 PM. The last radio contact with the flight was at 12:44 AM, when the flight contacted company radio in New Orleans. Radar operators at a military station at Houma, Louisiana picked up the flight at 12:46 AM. It continued on a track of 296 degrees magnetic for a few minutes, then turned right to a heading of approximately 010 degrees and disappeared from the scope at 12:51 AM. At 1:16 AM, company radio attempted to contact Flight 967 to no avail; attempts by FAA enroute facilities, New Orleans Approach Control, and air traffic control were unable to raise the flight. Search and rescue aircraft spotted scattered debris and a number of bodies in the vicinity of the last radar return; the remains of ten individuals were eventually located. The main section of the wreckage has never been found despite the efforts of Navy and Coast Guard divers.
As investigators attempted to piece together the events that led to Flight 967's demise, it was discovered that one passenger, William Taylor, had boarded the flight using a ticket issued to Richard Spears, a convicted criminal working at the time as a naturopath. The theory arose that Spears, who had befriended Taylor in prison, tricked Taylor into boarding the flight with a piece of luggage containing a bomb. When the aircraft was destroyed, authorities would assume that Spears had himself been a victim and his wife would be able to collect on his life insurance. However, Taylor chose to purchase his own life insurance at the airport before departure; when his ex-wife applied to collect, the deception was discovered. Spears disappeared after the accident but was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona with Taylor's car. He was charged with unlawful possession of an automobile but due to lack of evidence was never charged in the alleged bombing of Flight 967. His whereabouts after his arrest in Phoenix are unknown.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (predecessor of the NTSB) did not find a probable cause for the accident due to the lack of evidence.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Aviation Safety Network report on Flight 967
- Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 967 from the Department of Transport's Special Collections
- List of passenger airline bombings from Aerospace.org (scroll down for information on Flight 967)
