American Airlines Flight 383 (1965)

This article is about the accident that occurred in 1965. 3 Crash

For the 2016 incident, see American Airlines Flight 383
(2016). The aircraft ew into thick cloud and thunderstorm af-
ter ying into the northwest of the airport. It descended
American Airlines Flight 383 was a nonstop ight from more rapidly than it should have, without either pilot in
New York City to Cincinnati on November 8, 1965.[1]:1 the cockpit noticing. The airport is situated at an alti-
The aircraft was a Boeing 727, with 57 passengers, and tude of 853 feet (260 m) and the aircraft had descended
5 crew on board.[1]:1 The aircraft crashed on approach to to the level of 553 ft (169 m) above the airport while it
the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. was still about 5 mi (8.0 km) northeast of the airport. It
Only three passengers and one ight attendant survived descended to just 3 ft (per altimeter) above the airport
the crash.[1]:5 while it was about 3 nm north of the airport. Its correct
altitude should have been just below 1,000 ft (300 m) at
that time. It continued its descent into the Ohio River
valley while crossing the river back to the southern shore.
1 Aircraft When it made its last turn to the southeast to line up with
the runway, it ew into the wooded slopes of the valley 3
km north of the runway threshold in poor visibility, at an
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 727-100 (registration
[1]:7 altitude of 225 ft (i.e. 225 ft (69 m) below the runways
number N1996), serial number 18901. The Boeing
altitude). It then exploded and was engulfed in ames.
727 was delivered to American Airlines on June 29, 1965,
and had operated a total of 938 hours at the time of the Of the 62 people on board the aircraft, only four people
accident.[1]:7 (one ight attendant and three passengers) survived.[1]:5,7
One of the survivors was Israel Horowitz, an American
record producer.

2 Events leading to the crash

[1]:25
The ight was delayed for 20 minutes in New York.
Until the landing attempt, the ight from New York to
Cincinnati was uneventful.[1]:2 At 18:45 Eastern Standard
Time, the crew contacted the airline via ARINC com-
pany radio to report a 19:05 estimated time of arrival
at Cincinnati.[1]:12 The weather was ne near the air-
port except for thunder clouds developing northwest of
the airport across the Ohio River valley. At 18:57, Flight
383 was cleared by the approach controller for a visual
approach to Cincinnatis runway 18, and was advised of
precipitation just west of the airport.[1]:2 The aircraft ap-
proached the airport from the southeast and turned its
heading to north to cross the Ohio River. It turned west
after crossing to the northern shore of the Ohio River,
intending to make a nal turn to southeast after crossing
the Ohio River (which runs from northwest to southeast)
again to the southern shore of the river. After that nal
turn, the aircraft would line up with the runway 18 of the
airport to make the nal approach.
At 18:58, the approach controller transferred Flight 383
to the Cincinnati tower frequency.[1]:2 At 18:59, Flight
383 received clearance from the tower controller to land
on runway 18.[1]:2
4 Investigation
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the
accident.[1]:1 CAB investigators concluded that the air-
craft was working normally and fully under the control of
the pilots at the time of the crash.[1]:18 The aircraft was
not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder.[2] The ight
data recorder showed the aircraft descended through 500
feet (150 m) in the last 42 seconds before impact, a nor-
mal rate of descent for the landing phase of operation.
The CAB determined that the probable cause of the ac-
cident was the pilots failure to properly monitor their al-
titude during a visual approach into deteriorating weather
conditions.[1]:26
It was later believed that the following factors might have
contributed to the crash:
Lights from the houses in the Ohio River valley, lo-
cated 400 feet (120 m) below the altitude of the
airport, may have conveyed an illusion of runway
lights.
The ight crew may have been confused about their
true altitude, due to misinterpretation of the air-

1
2 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

crafts drum-type altimeter after descending through
0 feet (relative to the airport altitude), or they may
have had their hands full controlling the plane in se-
vere weather and simply failed to notice the readings
on the altimeter.
A late departure from New York and the deteriorat-
ing weather at Cincinnati may have put pressure on
the ight crew.
Despite the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions,
the ight crew chose to make a visual approach to the
runway.
[2] Daniel. Last words - ATC conversations. Retrieved July
16, 2013.
[3] American Airlines Inc. v. United States, 418 F.2d 180 (5th
Cir. 1969) (After an eighteen day trial, upon a jury ver-
dict, judgment was entered against American in the sum
of $175,000, plus funeral expenses. The District Judge
found the United States not guilty of any negligence which
contributed to the crash.).
[4] Noble, Greg (November 16, 2015). This week in Cincin-
nati history: 70 killed in worst plane crash at CVG.
WCPO-TV. Retrieved July 23, 2016.

8 External links
5 Aftermath
Full Civil Aeronautics Board report (Archive)
The estate of Samuel Creasy, one of the passengers
who died aboard Flight 383, sued American Airlines for Figure 1
wrongful death. American Airlines responded by ling Figure 2
a third-party complaint against the Federal Aviation Ad- Figure 3
ministration and the Weather Bureau, in an attempt to
shift liability for the crash to meteorologists and air traf- Figure 4
c controllers for failure to warn the pilots of inclement Figure 5
weather or revoke the visual approach clearance. Amer- Table
ican Airlines also alleged that the accident was due to a
downdraft rather than pilot error. A jury found Ameri- NTSB brief DCA66A0003
can liable for the accident and awarded Creasys family
$175,000 plus funeral expenses, a decision that was up- Detail Description of the events and investigation
held on appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.[3] of the crash from CASA Flight Safety Magazine
(February 2006 issue)
Two years after the crash of Flight 383, TWA Flight 128
crashed on the same hill while on approach to Cincinnati The last words of the ight crew
under poor visibility conditions.[4]
NTSB brief on another American Airlines Flight
383 incident on June 16, 1993 (non-fatal)

6 See also Photo of the accident aircraft

1961 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4 crash

American Airlines Flight 1420

Aviation safety

South African Airways Flight 228 (pilot error read-

ing a drum-type altimeter on a Boeing 707)

American Airlines Flight 383 (2016)

TWA Flight 128, a Convair 880 that crashed near

Flight 383 site

7 References
[1] Aircraft Accident Report, American Airlines, Inc. Boe-
ing 727, N1996, Near the Greater Cincinnati Airport,
Constance, Kentucky, November 8, 1965 (PDF). Civil
Aeronautics Board. October 7, 1966. Retrieved July 21,
2016.
 3

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