Global InformationBraniff International Airways Flight 542 information
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 An L-188 Electra similar to that involved in the accident. | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 29, 1959 |
| Summary | In-flight disintegration due to harmonic coupling |
| Site | Leon County, near Buffalo, Texas |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-188A Electra |
| Operator | Braniff Airways |
| Registration | N9705C |
| Flight origin | Houston International Airport, Houston, Texas |
| 1st stopover | Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas |
| Last stopover | Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. |
| Destination | LaGuardia Airport, New York City |
| Passengers | 28 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 34 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Braniff International Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, registration N9705C, was a scheduled domestic flight from Houston, Texas, bound for New York with scheduled stops in Dallas and Washington, D.C. On September 29, 1959, 23 minutes into the 41-minute flight from Houston to Dallas Love Field, the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air approximately 3.8 miles (6.1 km) southeast of Buffalo, Texas, killing everyone on board.
Identifying the cause of the disaster proved difficult, as the accident had occurred before the age of flight data recorders. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and, after interviewing numerous eyewitnesses and examining the debris field, were able to conclude that the initial failure of the aircraft had begun in the left wing. However, even though it was determined that the wing was destroyed by "cycles of reverse bending" or "flutter", the investigation failed to determine how the flutter was caused, and the investigation stalled.
In the six months following the accident further progress towards identifying the cause of the flutter was unsuccessful and the case remained unsolved. The breakthrough into unlocking the cause of the accident came after the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 710 on March 17, 1960. This aircraft, another Electra, had disintegrated in mid-air after losing its wings in a similar fashion to the Braniff aircraft. The investigation into the Northwest crash discovered a new phenomenon of harmonic coupling within the wings of aircraft, which in the end was ultimately identified by the CAB as being the cause of both break-ups. The final accident report for Flight 542 was issued on April 28, 1961.