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Braniff International Airways Flight 352 was a scheduled domestic flight from William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, United States to Dallas Love Field in Dallas; on May 3, 1968 a Lockheed L-188A Electra flying on the route, registration N9707C, broke up in mid air and crashed near Dawson, Texas, after flying into a severe thunderstorm. It was carrying 5 crew and 80 passengers; there were no survivors. Investigation revealed that the accident was caused by the captain's decision to penetrate an area of heavy weather followed by a structural over-stress and failure of the airframe while attempting recovery from loss of control during a steep 180 degree turn executed in an attempt to escape the weather.〔. Retrieved on 2006-10-14.〕 ==Flight history== Earlier in the day, at 12:40 local time, the crew of the accident flight flew from Dallas to Houston through the same area they were scheduled to fly later on. On that previous flight, a few hours before, they encountered no significant weather along the route. Once they arrived in Houston, there was no record of the crew being briefed about the updated weather by any Weather Bureau or FAA personnel, or by any Braniff dispatcher or weather office. They did, however, receive hardcopy information about all relevant en route and terminal weather reports and forecasts.〔 At 16:11, the crew departed William P. Hobby Airport as Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Electra four-engine turboprop, en route to Dallas-Love Field. After about 25 minutes into the flight, while cruising at FL200 (about 20,000 feet above mean sea level), the aircraft approached an area of severe thunderstorm activity. The crew requested to descend to 15,000 feet and deviate to the west. ATC informed the crew that other flights in the area were deviating to the east and suggested they also deviate east, but the Electra crew insisted〔Finding #15 in the NTSB report〕 that the west seemed OK to them on their onboard weather radar: ATC then cleared the flight to descend to 14,000 feet and deviate to the west as they requested. (The westerly deviation would have been shorter and quicker than an easterly one.〔Finding #26 in the NTSB report〕) At 16:44 the crew requested and ATC cleared the flight to descend to 5,000 feet. The crew asked ATC if there were any reports of hail in the area, to which ATC replied: At 16:47 the flight encountered an area of severe weather including hail and requested a 180 degree right turn, which ATC immediately approved. While turning to the right in severe turbulence the bank angle was increased to over 90 degrees, and the nose pitched down to approximately 40 degrees. As the crew attempted to recover from the ensuing steep diving turn, the aircraft experienced acceleration forces of over 4 ''g'', which caused the right wing to fail. The aircraft then broke up at an altitude of 6,750 feet and crashed in flames into the ground at about 16:48, killing all 85 persons on board.〔 Witnesses said the four-engine turboprop Electra - a modified version of the trouble-plagued Lockheed aircraft that had experienced two wing failure accidents in 1959 and 1960 - had blown up before it hit the ground and pieces "fishtailed" down through sheets of rain. The FBI, however, did not suspect foul play. Cloyce Floyd, postmaster of the little town of Dawson, about a mile from the crash scene, said he was driving along in the rain when he saw an "orange flash." He continued, "I looked over to the left and I could see this red ball of fire hanging back there about the size of the sun. From the glare of the fire I could see the fuselage sort of fishtailing down. Then it hit and exploded."〔 Rex Owen, a fireman from Mexia, Texas, was among nearly 100 volunteer rescue workers who went to the scene. "The wreckage was scattered all over the place," he said. Rescue worked clogged the muddy roads for hours carrying bodies and parts of bodies from the eerie scene lit by several klieg lights.〔"New York Times", May 4, 1968〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Braniff Flight 352」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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