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Braniff International Airways Flight 250

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Braniff International Airways
IndustryAirline
Headquarters
United States


Template:Use mdy dates

Template:Infobox aircraft occurrence

Braniff International Airways Flight 250 met with disaster near Falls City, Nebraska on August 6, 1966, while traveling from Kansas City, Missouri to Omaha, Nebraska.[1][2] The crash occurred late Saturday night in a rural field and resulted in the deaths of all thirty-eight passengers along with the four crew members aboard.[3][4][5] The catastrophe was attributed to structural failure caused by severe turbulence encountered within a weather condition that could have been avoided.[6][7]

Aircraft

The airplane involved was a BAC 1-11-203AE bearing the registration Template:Airreg. It was constructed by the British Aircraft Corporation in December 1965.[6][8]

Flight crew

The flight deck team was composed of Captain Donald Pauly, aged 47, and First Officer James Hilliker, aged 39.

Captain Pauly held extensive experience, accumulating 20,767 total flight hours, including 549 hours specifically on the BAC-1-11. He was also type-rated on multiple aircraft such as the DC-3, DC-6, DC-7, and various models within the Convair series.

First Officer Hilliker had fewer hours, totaling 9,269 flight hours with 685 of those logged on the BAC-1-11. The NTSB report indicated that he possessed type ratings for both the BAC-1-11 and the Convair family.[6][9]

Flight

(All times are given in Central Standard Time (UTC–6); note that Daylight time was only observed in Minnesota along the route until 1967.)

Braniff operated Flight 250 between New Orleans and Minneapolis, making scheduled stops at Shreveport, Fort Smith, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Omaha.[4] The flight departed Kansas City at 22:55 under an IFR clearance to Omaha at Flight Level (FL) 200 (approximately 20,000 feet (6,100 m)). However, due to weather conditions, the crew requested to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,520 m). The aircraft remained at around 6,000 feet (1,830 m) until receiving clearance at 23:06 to descend to 5,000 feet.[6] At 23:08, the crew communicated with another Braniff flight departing from Omaha's Eppley Airfield, which reported encountering moderate to light turbulence.

Approximately four minutes later, Flight 250 encountered an updraft amid a squall line characterized by severe thunderstorms. The BAC 1-11 sharply accelerated upward while rolling to the left. At this moment, the right horizontal stabilizer and vertical fin failed.[6] Subsequently, the aircraft pitched downward and within one or two seconds experienced failure of the right wing. The plane then descended uncontrollably in flames, entering a flat spin before crashing to the ground roughly halfway between Kansas City and Omaha. The investigation concluded that the probable cause was structural failure in flight due to extreme turbulence encountered while operating in avoidable hazardous weather conditions.[6]

This accident marked the first fatal crash involving a BAC 1-11 in the United States;[10] it took place in southeast Nebraska within Richardson County, on farmland approximately seven miles (11 km) north-northeast of Falls City. The wreckage was found in a soybean field roughly 500 feet (150 m) from a nearby farmhouse.[4][10][11][12] At the time of impact (23:12), the farm owner and his family were returning home from a card party with relatives nearby and were traveling in a vehicle about half a mile (0.8 km) away.[1][3][10] The crash site is situated at an elevation near 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level.

Investigation

Braniff's operational guidelines forbade dispatching an aircraft into zones marked by a continuous line of thunderstorms; however, the airline's weather forecast underestimated both the quantity and severity of the storms as well as the turbulence intensity. Dispatch personnel at Braniff were aware that Flight 255 had postponed its departure from Sioux City to Omaha by one hour to allow the storm system to clear Omaha. They also knew Flight 234 traveling from St. Louis to Des Moines had been rerouted to Kansas City because of storm conditions. These developments were not communicated to the flight crew, as dispatchers judged them irrelevant due to their distance from Flight 250’s planned path. Despite this, the crew recognized the presence of severe weather, prompting the first officer to propose diverting around the storm activity. The captain, however, chose to proceed through the peripheral areas of the squall line.

File:Falls City Journal cover in August 1966.jpg
The Falls City Journal featured a prominent story soon after the Braniff International Airways flight crashed in Richardson County, Nebraska.

Dr. Ted Fujita, a distinguished meteorologist and professor at the University of Chicago, was commissioned by British Aircraft Corporation, the BAC 1-11 manufacturer, to analyze the jet’s weather-related performance. Dr. Fujita is credited with discovering downbursts and microbursts and is known for creating the Fujita scale, which categorizes tornado strength by correlating damage with wind velocity.

Significantly, this incident marked the inaugural use of a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) in investigating a U.S.-registered aircraft accident. Moments before structural failure, the CVR captured Captain Pauly directing First Officer Hilliker to modify engine power settings. Their communication was abruptly cut off by intense buffeting noise that obscured further conversation; this recording persisted even after the wings and tail separated from the plane. Because the flight data recorder (FDR) was destroyed during the crash, investigators later analyzed variations in buffeting sounds to approximate changes in speed and altitude throughout the accident sequence.

Aftermath

In 2006, marking four decades since the crash, a memorial was established at the site. A commemorative event for the fiftieth anniversary was organized by the local historical society and drew approximately one hundred attendees in 2016.

In popular culture

The crash is extensively examined in the book Air Disaster (Vol. 1) authored by Macarthur Job with illustrations by Matthew Tesch. It is also featured in Deadly Turbulence: The Air Safety Lessons of Braniff Flight 250 and Other Airliners, 1959-1966, written by Steve Pollock.

The incident receives a brief mention in the U.S. television drama Mad Men, specifically in season 5's episode titled "Signal 30". Within the show, the client Mohawk Airlines is depicted as operating the BAC 1-11 aircraft.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

External links

Template:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1966 Template:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in the 1960s

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