New York - Los Angeles

On January 16, 1974 at 01:35 AM, New York - Los Angeles experienced a crash involving Boeing 707, operated by Trans World Airlines - TWA, with the event recorded near Los Angeles California.

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

63 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 63 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 56, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Following an uneventful flight from New York-JFK, the crew started the descent to Los Angeles Airport runway 06R over the sea. Weather was clear but on short final, the crew encountered local patches of fog and visual control with the ground was lost. The airplane continued the approach and landed nose wheel first with a vertical g load of 4.6. This caused the nose wheel to collapse rearward and a fire started in the nose wheel well area. The fire in the nose wheel well was initiated by the burning nose gear tires. The fire was fed by hydraulic fluid that escaped from broken nose wheel steering hydraulic lines. Evacuation of the aircraft resulted in minor or serious injuries to eight passengers. Firefighting personnel were unable to extinguish the fire in the nose wheel well before it spread to the fuselage and destroyed the cockpit and the passenger cabin.

Aircraft reference details include registration N757TW, MSN 18395/309, year of manufacture 1962.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 34.0587°, -118.4165°.