Las Vegas – Palm Springs – San Diego

On February 13, 1958 at 01:45 PM, Las Vegas – Palm Springs – San Diego experienced a crash involving Convair CV-240, operated by Western Airlines, with the event recorded near Palm Springs California.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

21 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 21 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 18, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. About 1342 Flight 19 took off from runway 31. The takeoff appeared normal, and the aircraft climbed to approximately 500 feet above the ground. At this time several ground witnesses saw two or more silvery pieces separate from the aircraft. Most witnesses said the pieces seemingly separated from the area of the right wing. Almost simultaneously the aircraft was observed to nose down sharply and descend at a steep angle. As it neared the ground it leveled off considerably but continued to descend. It contacted the ground raising a large cloud of dust and then disappeared from the view of the observers behind intervening higher terrain. Seconds later large columns of smoke were seen rising from the accident site. During the ground roll the aircraft struck large boulders in its path and fire occurred which consumed the major portion of the aircraft. There were no fatalities but serious injuries resulted to 5 of the 18 passengers and minor injuries to most of the others. The crew of three received minor or slight injuries.

Aircraft reference details include registration N8405H, MSN 22, year of manufacture 1948.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 33.8246°, -116.5403°.