Los Angeles – Albuquerque – Amarillo – Kansas City – Columbus – Pittsburgh – Newark

On August 3, 1935 at 12:55 PM, Los Angeles – Albuquerque – Amarillo – Kansas City – Columbus – Pittsburgh – Newark experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-2, operated by Transcontinental %26 Western Air - TWA, with the event recorded near Albuquerque New Mexico.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

11 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 11 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 9, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Left Albuquerque at 1231LT and climb to 9,300 feet. While the crew was trying to change the fuel feed to the left auxiliary tank, the left engine failed. Shortly later, the right engine failed as well. Crew reduced his altitude and elected to make an emergency landing, but unfortunately, the aircraft was cruising over a wooded area. Eventually, the aircraft hit tree tops and crashed in a rocky field located some 48 kilometers east from Albuquerque. All eleven occupants were injured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. The failure of the engines was found to be due to the presence of a large amount of water in the 80 octane fuel with which the plane had been serviced at Albuquerque. A check of the fuel storage system at Albuquerque disclosed that on 5000 gallon underground tank contained about 200 gallons of water. After extensive tests, it was found that with a certain amount of water in the fuel pit, pumping fuel from the underground storage tank would cause water to syphen from the fuel pit into the tank through an air vent running between the two. On the afternoon of the preceding day there had been an unusual amount of rainfall which had flooded the concrete apron and filled the fuel pit with water.

Aircraft reference details include registration NC13722, MSN 1248, year of manufacture 1934.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 35.1677°, -106.5254°.