Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 17 March 1960 |
| Summary | In-flight disintegration |
| Site |
Tobin Township, Perry County, near Cannelton, Indiana 37°54′39.62″N 86°37′58.83″W / 37.9110056°N 86.6330083°WCoordinates: 37°54′39.62″N 86°37′58.83″W / 37.9110056°N 86.6330083°W |
| Passengers | 57 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 63 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-188 Electra |
| Operator | Northwest Orient Airlines |
| Registration | N121US |
| Flight origin | Chicago Midway Airport, Chicago, Illinois |
| Destination | Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida |
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, disintegrated in-flight and crashed near Cannelton, Indiana (10 miles east of Tell City, Indiana) on March 17, 1960. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew members. There were no survivors.
Flight 710 was a regularly scheduled flight departing Minneapolis-St. Paul to Miami with a stop at Chicago Midway Airport. Radio contact with the Indianapolis Control Center was made at approximately 3:00 pm local time. About 15 minutes later, witnesses reported seeing the airplane break into two pieces with the right wing falling as one piece and the remainder of the craft plunging to earth near Cannelton in southern Indiana.
At the time, investigators organized by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) worked on three major theories:
"Obviously, this plane broke up in the air," CAB spokesman Edward Slattery said at the time. "It is too early to tell the cause of the tragedy, but we will investigate all possibilities, including a bomb." (Edwardsville Examiner, March 19, 1960)
The New York Times reported that at 5:44 P.M., an hour and a half after news of the crash in the snow-covered Indiana-Kentucky border country, an anonymous caller told the Chicago police that a bomb had been placed aboard a plane at Midway Airport. The police searched the airport, but found nothing and said that they were convinced the call was a prank. The operator said she thought the caller was a young teenager.
The craft's fuselage plunged into an Ohio River country farm at a speed of over 600 miles per hour and disintegrated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent agents to the scene to determine whether there was any violation of federal law. Such an investigation would include the possibility of sabotage. State Police Sgt. Joe O'Brien said that the plane was last heard from over Scotland, Indiana, about 70 miles (110 km) from the crash site. He said the pilot, Capt. Edgar LaParle, had reported rumble and the weather was very muggy and cloudy.
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