Flight 11
Unionville,Missouri
May 22, 1962
Boeing 707-124 , N70775
On the night of May 22, 1962, a Continental Air Lines Boeing 707-124, N70775, operating as Flight 11 en route from O’Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, to Kansas City, Missouri, was flying via Jet Route 26V at an altitude of 39,000 feet. A few minutes after Flight 11 had made a northerly deviation from course to circumnavigate a thunderstorm, in the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, the radar image of the aircraft disappeared from the scope of the Waverly, Iowa, Flight Following Service. At approximately 2117 an explosion occurred in the right rear lavatory resulting in separation of the tail section from the fuselage. The aircraft broke up and the main part of the fuselage struck the ground about 6 miles north-northwest of Unionville, Missouri. All 37 passengers and crew of 8 sustained fatal injuries. The aircraft was totally destroyed.
The probable cause of this accident was the disintegrating force of a dynamite explosion which occurred in the right rear lavatory resulting in destruction of the aircraft.
"This was the same aircraft Flight #54 thatwas hijacked a year earlier in El Paso Texas.".
Read The Report
Flight Crew:
Captain Fred R. Gray
First Officer Edward J. Sullivan
Second Officer Roger D. Allen
Cabin Crew:
DPS . David E. M. Olssen
Marilyn I. Bloomquist
Mary R. McGrath
Martha J. Rush
Stella Ann Berry
