United Air Lines Flight 521
The wreckage of Flight 521 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | May 29, 1947 |
| Summary | Pilot error |
| Site | LaGuardia Airport, New York City, United States 40°46′06″N 73°53′05″W / 40.7683°N 73.8847°W |
| Aircraft | |
| A United Airlines Douglas DC-4, similar to the accident aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-4 |
| Aircraft name | Mainliner Lake Tahoe |
| Operator | United Air Lines |
| IATA flight No. | UA521 |
| ICAO flight No. | UAL521 |
| Call sign | UNITED 521 |
| Registration | NC30046 |
| Flight origin | LaGuardia Airport, New York, United States |
| Destination | Cleveland Municipal Airport, Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
| Occupants | 48 |
| Passengers | 44 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Fatalities | 43 |
| Injuries | 5 |
| Survivors | 5 |
United Air Lines Flight 521 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by a Douglas DC-4 from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, United States, to Cleveland, Ohio, United States. On May 29, 1947, while attempting to take off on runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only five of them survived.
It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. Its record stood for less than 24 hours before an Eastern Air Lines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard.