He did not notice if the landing gear was down but he said he could see the whole underside and the lights on the aircraft. A witness in a car approaching the Whitestone Bridge described seeing the aircraft pass overhead at an altitude of about 100 feet (30 m). Another crew member on the same tugboat stated that he saw the aircraft hit the water, and that he thought it did so at a nose-down angle. : 3 Ī witness aboard a nearby tugboat reported seeing the aircraft flying very low over the river before it hit the water with a tremendous noise. : 3 Moments later, the aircraft struck the surface of the East River about 4,900 feet (1,500 m) short of the runway, at a speed of 140 knots (160 mph 260 km/h). The flight crew acknowledged the clearance with a simple acknowledgement of "320", and there was no further radio communication. At 11:55 p.m., while the aircraft was 2.8 miles (4.5 km) from the airport, controllers gave the flight its final landing clearance for runway 22. : 2 The tower controller instructed the flight to proceed to the north of the airport, and to prepare to perform a direct approach over the East River to land on runway 22. Air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport informed the pilots that the weather conditions at the airport included overcast skies with a ceiling of 400 feet (120 m) and a visibility of 1.25 miles (2,000 m). : 3Īt 11:34 p.m., the flight approached the New York City area. : 1–2 The ascent to cruising altitude and the flight to the New York City area were uneventful, with the aircraft operating on automatic pilot and cruising at an altitude of 21,000 feet (6,400 m). : 3 Sixty-eight passengers and five crew members were aboard, and the trip was expected to take one hour and forty-two minutes. EDT, fifty-four minutes late, and was one of the last flights to depart Chicago that evening before the airport was closed due to the storm.
: 2 The flight was eventually airborne at 9:54 p.m. On the evening of February 3, 1959, the flight was scheduled to leave Chicago's Midway Airport, but wind-driven snow delayed its departure. The airline had first started flying the new aircraft on January 23, 1959, and it offered six daily round-trip flights on its routes between New York and Chicago, with plans to expand to other routes once more of the new aircraft were delivered. The conclusion was challenged by the Air Line Pilots Association, who felt that the crash was caused by faulty instruments and poor weather conditions, not by any mistakes made by the highly experienced flight crew.Īmerican Airlines Flight 320 was a regularly-scheduled flight between Chicago and New York City using one of the company's newly obtained Lockheed L-188 Electra turbine propeller aircraft. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that mistakes by the flight crew, the flight crew's inexperience flying the type of aircraft, and poor weather conditions were the causes of the crash. American Airlines had been flying the type of aircraft in commercial service for only about two weeks before the accident.Įyewitnesses to the accident reported that the aircraft was flying significantly lower than was normal for planes approaching the airport, while surviving flight crew members claimed that the aircraft's instruments had told them that the flight was operating at safe altitudes right up to the moment of impact. Poor weather conditions at the destination meant that the crew had to descend through dense clouds and fog, but the aircraft flew lower than the pilots intended and it crashed into the icy river 4,900 feet (1,500 m) short of the runway at a speed of 140 knots (160 mph 260 km/h). On February 3, 1959, the Lockheed L-188 Electra performing the flight crashed into the East River during its descent, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. The aircraft involved, taken before the accidentĪmerican Airlines Flight 320 was a scheduled flight between Chicago Midway International Airport and New York City's LaGuardia Airport.
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