User:Whoop whoop pull up/North Central Airlines Flight 261

North Central Airlines Flight 261
Accident
Date	4 August 1968
Summary	Mid-air collision
Site	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Total fatalities	3
Total injuries	1
Total survivors	12
First aircraft
	; A North Central Airlines Convair 580 (plus two more behind it) similar to that involved in the accident.
Type	Convair 580
Operator	North Central Airlines
IATA flight No.	NC261
ICAO flight No.	NC261
Registration	N4634S
Flight origin	O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois
Stopover	General Mitchell Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Destination	Manitowoc County Airport, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Occupants	12
Passengers	8
Crew	4
Fatalities	0
Injuries	1
Survivors	12 (all)
Second aircraft
	; A Cessna 150 similar to that involved in the accident.
Type	Cessna 150
Registration	N8742S
Flight origin	Lombard/York Township Airport, Lombard, Illinois
Destination	Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin
Occupants	3
Passengers	2
Crew	1
Fatalities	3 (all)
Injuries	0
Survivors	0

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North Central Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled U.S. passenger flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, with an intermediate stop at General Mitchell Field in Milwaukee. On 4 August 1968, while preparing to land at Milwaukee, the Convair 580 operating the flight collided in midair with a private Cessna 150, killing the three occupants of the Cessna and seriously injuring the Convair's first officer; the Convair's captain made a successful emergency landing at Milwaukee, despite substantial aircraft damage. The collision was attributed, in part, to extensive obscuration of the Convair's windshield by insect smears, which prevented the Convair pilots from catching sight of the Cessna in time to avoid the collision.^[1]

Accident[edit]

Flight 261 departed O'Hare Airport at 0934 CDT, bound for Milwaukee and then Manitowoc. The flight was initially cleared to 5,000 feet, but, during climbout, the aircraft encountered an unusually-high concentration of insects, which progressively impaired visibility out the front windshield; in an attempt to mitigate the accumulation of squashed insects on the windshield, the flight requested and obtained clearance to climb to 7,000 feet, which, although it did not completely stop the insect strikes, did reduce their frequency. Over the next ten minutes, the flight was handed off from O'Hare departure control to the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), and then, at 0943:58, from Chicago ARTCC to Milwaukee approach control, who began to vector Flight 261 for an instrument landing system approach to runway 27R.^[1] The Cessna pilot rented his aircraft from Home Airmotive, Inc., at Lombard the morning of the accident for a day trip to Sheboygan. He did not disclose his route of flight or file a flight plan. Neither was required for his planned VFR flight.^[1]

In the two minutes prior to the collision, Milwaukee approach control provided Flight 261 with three traffic advisories, at 0946:24, 0947:02, and 0947:35, regarding two unidentified aircraft ahead of the flight, one of which was the Cessna.^[a] Although the Convair flightcrew searched for this traffic, they were unable to gain sight of it, due in large part to the very dense insect accumulations on the windshield, until both pilots glimpsed the Cessna ahead and to the right of their aircraft on a closing course immediately prior to impact, when it was mere "yards" (in the first officer's words) from their aircraft.^[1] The Convair overtook and collided with the Cessna at 0948:25, killing the pilot and passengers of the Cessna and seriously injuring the Convair's first officer.^[1] The Cessna was destroyed in the collision and broke into pieces; most of the wreckage fell to the ground near the collision site, while the cabin (with the bodies of the occupants still inside) became lodged in the Convair's forward baggage compartment and was recovered from the latter aircraft after it landed. The Convair sustained extensive damage to the nose, right side of the cockpit, and right engine and propeller, but remained flyable, although electrical power on board the aircraft was lost. Due to the damage and the first officer's injuries, the captain took control of the aircraft, after which he flew to the airport and made a successful single-engine landing.^[1]

Investigation[edit]

Notes[edit]

^ A fourth traffic advisory was issued at 0948:32, 7 seconds after the collision. It described the second unknown aircraft, which was never identified; although this aircraft did not collide with Flight 261, it did come within a few miles of the two colliding aircraft (as observed by both the Milwaukee approach controller and a witness on the ground), and was close enough at one point (shortly after the fourth traffic advisory) for its primary radar target to merge with that of Flight 261.