United Airlines 553
By Patrick Mondout
On the afternoon of December 8, 1972, a United Air Lines Boeing 737 operating as flight 553 crashed while attempting to land at the Chicago-Midway Airport. The 737 crashed in a residential area approximately 1.5 miles southeast of the approach end of Runway 31L.
Forty passengers and three crewmembers were killed and the aircraft was destroyed by impact and subsequent fire. A number of houses and other structures in the impact area were also destroyed. Two persons on the ground also received fatal injuries.
A review of the cockpit voice recording (CVR) shows that air traffic control (ATC) had asked the crew to slow down three times. The third time to allow enough space between it and another aircraft ahead of it.
About 90 seconds before impact, Midway ATC asks flight 553 what their airspeed is. They report 120 knots. Just twenty seconds before impact, Midway ATC requests that United 553 make a missed approach (not land and instead go around for another attempt).
The aircraft was observed below the overcast in a nose-high attitude and with the sound of high engine power just before it crashed into structures on the ground.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was the captain's failure to exercise positive flight management during the execution of a non-precision approach, which culminated in a critical deterioration of airspeed into the stall regime where level flight could no longer be maintained.
Among those killed was George Collins, 47, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois.
Source: National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report NTSB-AAR-73-16.
