The Nome Nugget

United Air Lines Crash In Utah

BRYCE CANYON, Utah, (AP)--Six teams of experts probed carefully Saturday through charred wreckage of a United Air Lines DC-6 plane in an effort to determine the cause of the crash which Friday took the lives of 52 persons.

Representatives of United Air Lines, Douglas Aircraft, the plane's manufacturer; the civil aeronautics board and other federal agencies teamed off according to their individual abilities.

Experts on electrical installations, fuselage design, engines and other features of airplane construction sought to learn the source of the fire which caused the plane to plummet to earth just 1,500 yards from the emergency landing strip toward which the pilot was heading.

The investigators were tight-lipped. They refused to hazard opinions on the mishap.

The New York-bound ship, flight 608 from Los Angeles, smashed near the rim of Tropic Canyon in Bryce Canyon national park, and exploded, scattering wreckage and bodies over an area of several hundred yards.

Trailing smoke and flames for at least 22 miles before it crashed, the giant ship plowed a smoke-blackened swath for 800 yards alongside state highway 22 just east of the Bryce Canyon airport.

The scene is in southern Utah, about 275 miles south of Salt Lake City.

The engines, scorched and twisted, were thrown 200 to 300 feet beyond the burned area. A piece of the tail, 15 to 20 feet long, was the largest part of the craft remaining.

The bodies, burned and unrecognizable for the most part, were horribly torn apart.

Two infants and 21 or more women were among the dead.

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Monday. October 27. 1947

Fifty-Two Killed In United Air Lines Crash In Utah

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men were among the victims. One of the women was an expectant mother.

The mutilated remains were flung across the 7,300 foot plateau or blown into the 200-foot deep canyon just behind the impact point.

All bodies were left at the scene until Saturday morning, with guards posted to protect them from coyotes, pending an inquest.

Capt. E. L. McMillen, Balboa Park, U. Calif., the pilot, reported by radio at 12:21 p.m. (MST), a few minutes before the crash, that fire had broken out, probably in the plane's baggage compartment, and that the cabin was filled with smoke.

Five minutes later the veteran of 15 years of flying on western routes opened his microphone and reported: "The tail fire is going out. We may get down and we may not. Best place we can . . ."

At 12:27 he reported he had turned back for Bryce Canyon airport and said "May make it. Think we have a chance now. Approaching the strip."

The next radio message came from the airport tower here at 12:32 p.m. It said: " . . . fire one mile east."

The ship had just skimmed across the top of Tropic Canyon to the sloping top of a long, sage-brush-covered plateau, seconds of flying time from the landing strip.

Concussion from the explosion was felt clearly five miles away.

Black oily smoke billowed into the air.

Among prominent persons aboard the ship were:

Jack Guenther, 33, New York, managing editor of Look Magazine;

William A. Galvin, New York, vice president of the Bakery and Confectionery International union of America (AFL);

Clement D. Ryan, president of Whitney's department store, San Diego, Calif., and former president of Montgomery Ward & Co. and his wife;

Mrs. Dorothy Howard, Coronado, Calif., wife of Maj. Gen. A. F. Howard, USMC, ret.;

Samuel Lillienthal and Mike Lillienthal, wealthy Chicago brothers, and their wives;

Mr. and Mrs. C. J. de Srugh, an English industrialist, and his wife;

and Jefferson Davis Burkett, Chicago Cardinals professional football team punting star.

The ill-fated craft was described at Chicago by J. A. Herlihy, UAL vice president in charge of operations, as having been "thoroughly inspected" before its take-off on the flight.