San Francisco – Eugene – Portland – Seattle

On October 1, 1966 at 08:10 PM, San Francisco – Eugene – Portland – Seattle experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-9, operated by West Coast Airlines, with the event recorded near Wemme Oregon.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a mountains crash site.

18 people were known to be on board, 18 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 13, passenger fatalities: 13, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. West Coast Flight 956 departed San Francisco (SFO) at 18:44 for a flight to Eugene (EUG), Portland (PDX) and Seattle (SEA). The brand new DC-9 aircraft, which had been delivered to West Coast Airlines just 2 weeks earlier, arrived at Eugene at 19:34 and took off again 18 minutes later. At 20:04 the crew were cleared to descend from the cruising altitude of FL140 to 9000 feet. While turning to heading 300°, the aircraft descended below the clearance altitude and impacted the wooded eastern slope of Salmon Mountain at the 3830 feet level. The aircraft attitude was 30° right bank, in a 3-4° climbing flight path on a heading of 265°. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 18 occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N9101, MSN 45794/52, year of manufacture 1966.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 45.3487°, -121.9659°.