Video: 'Unsolved To This Day: Oregon's Worst Air Crash | West Coast Airlines Flight 956'
(Saturday, October 1, 1966, 8:09 p.m. PDT) — A West Coast Airlines Douglas DC-9 crashed into a wooded mountainside in Oregon tonight, killing all 18 people aboard in the first loss of the newly introduced jetliner.
Flight 956 was flying from San Francisco to Seattle, with stops at Eugene and Portland, when it disappeared while approaching Portland on the night of Oct. 1, 1966.
The DC-9-14, registered N9101, had entered service just five days earlier and had accumulated only about 164 hours of flying time. It departed Eugene at 7:52 p.m. and was cleared under instrument flight rules toward Portland.
At about 8:04 p.m., air traffic controllers instructed the crew to descend from 14,000 feet to 9,000 feet. Moments later, the flight was told to turn right to a heading of 300 degrees.
Radar contact was lost as the aircraft made the turn. At 8:09 p.m., the controller asked the crew to report when established on the assigned heading. The crew responded, “Nine five six wilco.” It was the final transmission.
Video: 'Deadly Descent | West Coast Airlines Flight 956'
Search aircraft were dispatched from McChord Air Force Base and Portland, but darkness, rain and mountainous terrain hampered the overnight search.
The wreckage would be found the following afternoon, Oct. 2, in the Mount Hood National Forest, about 5.5 miles south of Wemme and roughly 10 miles west-southwest of Mount Hood. The aircraft had struck a mountainside at an elevation of about 3,830 feet and was destroyed by the impact and ensuing fire.
All 13 passengers and five crew members were killed. The crew included Capt. Charles C. Warren, who had more than 18,900 hours of flying experience, check captain Donald Alldredge, with about 21,800 hours, and first officer Pete M. Labuski, with more than 9,500 hours. Three passengers were West Coast Airlines employees.
Investigators found no evidence of an in-flight fire, explosion, structural failure or mechanical malfunction. The aircraft’s landing gear was retracted, and the flight data recorder showed that the jet had descended to approximately 4,000 feet before leveling off, despite having been cleared to 9,000 feet. It was flying on autopilot when an abrupt climb began about two seconds before impact.
The Civil Aeronautics Board eventually determined that the probable cause was the aircraft’s descent below its assigned altitude and below the surrounding terrain. Investigators, however, could not determine why the descent occurred.
The crash was the first fatal accident involving a DC-9 and the first fatalities in West Coast Airlines’ history. The nearly new aircraft, valued at approximately $3 million, was destroyed.
