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This collection consists of material relating the 1960 New York Mid-Air Collision including FAA and CAB reports on the accident and material relating to the National Transportation Safety Board's formal hearing, including testimony by William A. Wesche, Jr.
On 16 December 1960, the United Airlines Douglas DC-8 Mainliner Will Rogers (Flight 826), bound for Idlewild Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City, collided with the TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation Star of Sicily (Flight 266) as it was descending into the city's LaGuardia Airport. One plane crashed on Staten Island, the other into Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 people on both aircraft and six people on the ground; at the time, it was the deadliest aviation disaster. The probable cause of the accident was found to be that the United flight proceeded beyond its clearance limit and the confines of the airspace allocated to the flight by Air Traffic Control. William A Wesche, Jr., was a Federal Aviation Agency Supervisory Air Traffic Control Specialist at Idlewild Airport Traffic Control Tower, and was the Watch Supervisor on duty during the accident.
NASM.2019.0059
Wesche, William A., Jr.
1946
1960 - 1961
Jeffrey Wesche, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0059
0.02 Cubic feet (2 legal folders)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists mainly of material relating the 1960 New York Mid-Air Collision including FAA and CAB reports on the accident and material relating to the National Transportation Safety Board's formal hearing, including testimony by William A. Wesche, Jr. The testimony is on two reel-to reel tapes, with copies on three cassette tapes, a flash drive and CDR, as well as handwritten statement drafts by Wesche which he used to compose his official testimony, and a video of an air disaster television series highlighting this accident. The collection also contains the Army /Navy/CAA 39-page report, "Standards for the Control of Instrument Flight Rule Traffic" (ANC-IFC), January 1, 1946.
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1960 New York Mid-Air Collision Air Traffic Control Testimony Collection, NASM.2019.0059, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Airlines -- Safety measures
Airlines
Aircraft accidents
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound recordings