American Airlines Flight 1

Infobox Airliner accident
name = American Airlines Flight 1
Date = March 1, 1962
Type = Improper maintenance
Site = Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport)
Fatalities = 95
Injuries = 0
Aircraft Type = Boeing 707-123
Operator = American Airlines
Tail Number = N7506A
Passengers = 87
Crew = 8
Survivors = 0

American Airlines Flight 1, registration airreg|N|7506A|disaster, took off from Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) on March 1, 1962. The Boeing 707-123 was headed to Los Angeles International Airport with 87 passengers and 8 flight crew onboard.cite news |work=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939941,00.html |title=Tragedy in Jamaica Bay |date=1962-03-09 |accessdate=2008-08-06] An improper maintenance technique resulted in internal wiring damage and rudder failure, causing the Boeing 707-123 to nose-dive into Jamaica Bay at 10:07 EST, killing all 95 on board the aircraft. Among the victims were multi-millionaire oilman W. Alton Jones (who was flying to meet former President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a fishing trip) and Louise Lindner Eastman (whose daughter Linda Eastman would later marry the Beatle Paul McCartney). Also on board were retired Admiral Richard L. Conolly, president of Long Island University and two-time Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, film producer ("The Guns of Navarone") Irving Rubine, and millionaire realtor Arnold Kirkeby, former head of the Kirkeby chain of luxury hotels, and whose residence was used as the "Beverly Hillbillies" ' mansion. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939941-1,00.html] [http://www.brownielocks.com/beverlyhillbillies.html?] The crash, coincidentally, occurred at the same time that U.S. astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. was being honored with a ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan for his successful manned space flight aboard the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962.

The flight number is still used as of August 30, 2008 on its New York JFK/Los Angeles LAX route; American Airlines Flight 1 is currently operated with a Boeing 767-223ER at approximately 9:00am daily.

At the time, it was the worst air accident involving a single plane in the history of U.S. commercial aviation. [cite web |publisher=Aviation Safety Network |url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19620301-0 |title=Boeing 707-123B - N7506A - Jamaica Bay, NY]

In popular culture

The crash was a significant part of the plot of an episode titled "Flight 1" from the second season of the AMC television series "Mad Men". [cite news |publisher=IGN |title=Mad Men: "Flight 1" Review; An airline crash impacts Sterling Cooper in ways both business and personal |url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/896/896752p1.html |date=2008-08-05 |first=Eric |last=Goldman]

ee also

* Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
* Air safety

References

External links

* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19620301-0 Aviation Safety Network for American Flight 1]
* [http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=03011962&reg=N7506A&airline=American+Airlines AirDisaster.com Flight 1 Report]