Snowy Range/Medicine Bow - United Airlines 409
Posted by: 
Eagle1977
N 41° 20.496 W 106° 18.344
13T E 390753 N 4577501
Historical marker commemorating the crash of United Airlines Flight 409.
Waymark Code: WMFEXT
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 10/08/2012
Views: 5
United Airlines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight departing from Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah on October 6, 1955. The aircraft registration number was N30062, a Douglas DC-4 propliner. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak, near Centennial, Wyoming, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members.) The victims included five female members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir[1] and military personnel. At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in U.S. commercial aviation history.(Wikipedia.com)
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Date of Crash: 10/06/1955
Aircraft Model: Douglas DC-4
Military or Civilian: Civilian
Tail Number: N30062
Cause of Crash:
Study of the wreckage that could be retrieved for examination suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed of the plane, implying that the plane was attempting a climb at the time of its crash. The reasons for this are not explicitly known, but several theories exist:
- An altimeter indicating an inaccurate altitude, leading the pilot to believe he was higher than he actually was;
- Mountain obscuration by clouds, preventing visual sighting of the mountain peak before it was too late to react to prevent the crash;
- Turbulence, specifically downdrafts, around Medicine Bow peak, pushing Flight 409 into the mountain.
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored.' This theory was never proven, and the CAB report specifically states that there was no evidence to support crew incapacitation.
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