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United Air Lines Flight 553
1972 aviation accident / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United Air Lines Flight 553 was a scheduled flight from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska, via Chicago Midway International Airport. On December 8, 1972, the Boeing 737-222 serving the flight, City of Lincoln, registration N9031U,[2][1]: 2 crashed while approaching Midway Airport.[1]: 1 [3][4]
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Accident | |
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Date | December 8, 1972 |
Summary | Stall during approach due to pilot error[1] |
Site | Southeast of Chicago Midway International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. 41.7653°N 87.7160°W / 41.7653; -87.7160 |
Total fatalities | 45 |
Total injuries | 18 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 737-222 |
Aircraft name | City of Lincoln |
Operator | United Air Lines |
Registration | N9031U |
Flight origin | Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) |
Stopover | Chicago Midway Int'l Airport |
Destination | Eppley Airfield (Omaha) |
Occupants | 61 |
Passengers | 55 |
Crew | 6 |
Fatalities | 43 |
Injuries | 16 |
Survivors | 18 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground fatalities | 2 |
Ground injuries | 2 |
The plane crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying five houses; there was an intense ground fire. Forty-three of the 61 aboard the aircraft and two on the ground were killed.[5][6] Among the passengers killed were Illinois congressman George W. Collins, CBS News correspondent Michele Clark[7] and Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.[8] This crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 737, which had entered airline service nearly five years earlier in February 1968.[9]