Eastern Air Lines Flight 375

Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, bearing the registration , was a Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft that crashed shortly after departing from Logan International Airport in Boston on October 4, 1960. Out of the 72 individuals aboard, 62 lost their lives while 10 survived, nine of whom sustained severe injuries.

Accident

Flight N5533 arrived at Logan Airport from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, operating as Flight 444, before being scheduled to depart as Flight 375 with planned stops in Philadelphia, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. The flight crew submitted an IFR plan to cruise at en route to Philadelphia. At 5:35 pm, the aircraft taxied to Runway 09 and received clearance for takeoff at 5:39 pm.

The takeoff proceeded without incident until roughly six seconds after liftoff when the plane encountered a large flock of starlings. The aircraft momentarily veered left but then returned to its original course. At about , birds were ingested into the engines, resulting in engine one’s propeller being feathered and the engine shutting down; engines two and four experienced temporary thrust loss but regained power. At approximately , the plane again turned left, pitched nose-up to roughly , rolled leftward, then nosedived into Winthrop Bay, part of Boston Harbor.

The fuselage fractured into two segments; eight passengers and two flight attendants in the rear section were ejected and rescued by nearby vessels. The forward section sank with most occupants trapped inside. A United States Navy Reserve commander present reported that many passengers were unable to evacuate before submersion. The entire sequence from takeoff to impact lasted less than one minute.

Investigation

The investigation team, including Operations Group Chairman Bobbie R. Allen of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB, predecessor to the NTSB), determined that engines two and four each ingested at least one bird, while engine one took in no fewer than eight. This led to the autofeathering of the number one propeller and subsequent shutdown of that engine, while damage to engines two and four caused reduced thrust during a critical phase of flight. Unable to maintain climb performance, the aircraft stalled; interrupted power on the port side likely caused the left wing stall that precipitated the crash. Bird strikes also damaged the windscreen and clogged the pitot tubes, impairing both pilot visibility and airspeed instrumentation.

The report concluded that turboprop engines such as those on the Electra are particularly susceptible to damage from bird strikes. Consequently, the CAB recommended that the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA, now known as the FAA) adopt measures to reduce bird strike hazards near airports and enhance turbine engine durability.

Furthermore, civil court proceedings uncovered a maintenance issue involving the copilot’s seat. Maintenance logs revealed that six weeks prior to Flight 375, a mechanic had improperly repaired the adjustable seat using wire instead of replacing a broken metal rod. An inspection on September 19 confirmed that the seat failed to lock securely in position. Expert testimony suggested that during emergency maneuvers, compensatory rudder inputs by the copilot caused his seat to slide backward inadvertently, pulling back on the yoke and inducing a nose-up stall likely contributing to loss of control.

• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• List of disasters in Massachusetts by death toll

External links

• Official Aircraft Accident Report for Flight 375 provided by the Department of Transportation's National Transportation Library
• Air Disaster, Volume 4: The Propeller Era, authored by Macarthur Job, published by Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. (Australia), 2001