Allegheny Airlines Flight 853

Allegheny Airlines Flight 853
Accident
Date	September 9, 1969
Summary	Mid-air collision
Site	Moral Township, Shelby County, Indiana, United States ; 39°37′02″N 85°55′14″W / 39.61722°N 85.92056°W
Total fatalities	83
Total survivors	0
First aircraft
	; N988VJ, the aircraft involved in the collision, seen in December 1968.
Type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
Operator	Allegheny Airlines
IATA flight No.	AL853
ICAO flight No.	ALO853
Call sign	ALLEGHENY 853
Registration	N988VJ
Flight origin	Boston Logan Airport
1st stopover	Friendship International Airport
2nd stopover	Greater Cincinnati Airport
3rd stopover	Indianapolis International Airport
Destination	St. Louis International Airport
Occupants	82
Passengers	78
Crew	4
Fatalities	82
Survivors	0
Second aircraft
	; A Piper PA-28 similar to the accident aircraft
Type	Piper PA-28-140
Registration	N7374J
Flight origin	Brookside Airpark, Brookside
Destination	Columbus Municipal Airport Columbus
Occupants	1
Crew	1
Fatalities	1
Survivors	0

Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 was a regularly scheduled Allegheny Airlines flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Baltimore, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana. On September 9, 1969, the aircraft serving the flight, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, collided in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 light aircraft near Fairland, Indiana. The DC-9 was carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew members, and the Piper was leased to a student pilot on a solo cross-country flight. All 83 occupants of both aircraft were killed in the accident and both aircraft were destroyed.^[1]

Flight history[edit]

Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 was a regularly scheduled flight departing Boston for Baltimore, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Captain James Elrod (47) and First Officer William Heckendorn (26) were at the controls. Elrod was a seasoned veteran with more than 23,800 flight hours.^[1] The flight left Cincinnati at 3:15 pm en route to Indianapolis. They were flying under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) clearance to Indianapolis, and Approach Control instructed them to descend to 2,500 feet (760 m) after passing the Shelbyville VOR at 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The flight was then vectored to a 280 degree heading.^[1]

Meanwhile, the private Piper PA-28 piloted by Robert Carey (34) was on a southeasterly heading. It was operating under a filed visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan which indicated a cruising altitude of 3,500 feet (1,100 m). It was not in communication with air traffic control and was not equipped with a transponder,^[2] and there was no evidence that it appeared as a primary radar target on the radarscope.^[1]

The two aircraft converged at a relative speed of 350 mph (300 kn; 560 km/h). The initial point of impact was at the top front right section of the DC-9's vertical stabilizer, just underneath the horizontal stabilizer. On the Piper, the impact point was just forward of the left wing root.^[3] The impact severed the entire tail assembly of the DC-9, which inverted and plowed into a soybean field at an approximate speed of 400 mph (350 kn; 640 km/h) about 100 yards (300 ft; 91 m) north of the Shady Acres mobile home park.^[3]

Probable cause[edit]

The National Transportation Safety Board released the following probable cause in a report adopted July 15, 1970:^[1]

The Board determines the probable cause of this accident to be the deficiencies in the collision avoidance capability of the Air Traffic Control system of the FAA in a terminal area wherein there was mixed instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR) traffic. The deficiencies included the inadequacy of the see-and-avoid concept under the circumstances of this case; the technical limitations of radar in detecting all aircraft; and the absence of Federal Aviation Regulations which would provide a system of adequate separation of mixed VFR and IFR traffic in terminal areas.

Legacy[edit]

The NTSB and FAA realized the inherent limitations of the "see and be seen" principle of air traffic separation in visual meteorological conditions, especially involving aircraft of dissimilar speeds or cloud layers and other restrictions to visibility.^[1] Over a period of years, following similar incidents and taking advantage of technological advances, the two agencies drove a number of corrective steps for the aviation industry, including:

Transponders are now installed in most general aviation aircraft^[4] and all commercial aircraft, dramatically increasing radar visibility of lower and slower-flying smaller aircraft, especially near atmospheric disturbances or other clutter (see Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System and Secondary Surveillance Radar)
Most airports with scheduled airline service now have a surrounding controlled airspace (ICAO designation Class B or Class C) for improved IFR and VFR traffic separation; all aircraft must be transponder-equipped and in communication with air traffic control to operate within this controlled airspace^[5]
Most commercial and air-carrier aircraft now have an airborne collision avoidance or TCAS device on board that can detect and warn about nearby transponder-equipped traffic^[4]
ATC radar systems now have "conflict alert"—automated ground-based collision avoidance software that sounds an alarm when aircraft come within a minimum safe separation distance^[6]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Aircraft Accident Report, Allegheny Airlines, Inc., DC-9, N988VJ, and a Forth Corporation, Piper PA-28, N7374J, Near Fairland, Indiana, September 9, 1969 (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. July 15, 1970. NTSB-AAR-70-15. Retrieved March 25, 2016. - Copy from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
^ "The Air: Death in TheSkies". September 19, 1969. Archived from the original on May 5, 2005 – via content.time.com.
^ ^a ^b "Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 memorial". www.allegheny853.net.
^ ^a ^b "General Aviation and Air Taxi Activity and Avionics (GAATAA) Surveys CY2004". www.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
^ "FAA Federal Aviation Regulations". airweb.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. June 23, 2001. Archived from the original on June 23, 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
^ NTSB Conflict Alert Safety Recommendation, 2003

External links[edit]

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.

[NTSB_AAR-70-15_Final_Report-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Aircraft Accident Report, Allegheny Airlines, Inc., DC-9, N988VJ, and a Forth Corporation, Piper PA-28, N7374J, Near Fairland, Indiana, September 9, 1969 (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. July 15, 1970. NTSB-AAR-70-15. Retrieved March 25, 2016. - Copy from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

[tmag-2] "The Air: Death in TheSkies". September 19, 1969. Archived from the original on May 5, 2005 – via content.time.com.

[auto-3] "Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 memorial". www.allegheny853.net.

[faa1-4] "General Aviation and Air Taxi Activity and Avionics (GAATAA) Surveys CY2004". www.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.

[faa2-5] "FAA Federal Aviation Regulations". airweb.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. June 23, 2001. Archived from the original on June 23, 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2019.

[ntsb2-6] NTSB Conflict Alert Safety Recommendation, 2003

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v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 Capital Airlines Flight 20 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 World Airways Flight 830 Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 Cal Poly football team New York mid-air collision
1961	Goldsboro B-52 American Airlines Flight 1502 Yuba City B-52 United Air Lines Flight 859 Alaska Airlines Flight 779 TWA Flight 529 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 Continental Airlines Flight 11 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 United Air Lines Flight 297 Eastern Air Lines Flight 512
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 Camden PA-24 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 Pan Am Flight 214
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 Paradise Airlines Flight 901A Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 United Air Lines Flight 823 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 Pan Am Flight 843 Continental Airlines Flight 12 Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 United Air Lines Flight 389 American Airlines Flight 383 United Air Lines Flight 227 Carmel mid-air (Eastern 853, TWA 42)
1966	NASA T-38 American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D Braniff International Airways Flight 250 West Coast Airlines Flight 956
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 TWA Flight 553 West Coast Airlines Flight 720 Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 Lake Erie skydiving disaster TWA Flight 159 X-15 Flight 3-65-97 TWA Flight 128
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 Braniff International Airways Flight 352 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 Northeast Airlines Flight 946 Japan Air Lines Flight 2 Pan Am Flight 281 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 Pan Am Flight 799 North Central Airlines Flight 458 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 United Air Lines Flight 266 Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 Prinair Flight 277 Delta Air Lines Flight 821 TWA Flight 5787 Newton Cessna 172 crash Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 Mohawk Airlines Flight 411
This list is incomplete.

Flight history[edit]

Probable cause[edit]

Legacy[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]