Boeing 40

Nicaraguayan Air Force - Fuerza Aérea - Ejercito de Nicaragua

Crashed in unknown circumstances.

National Air Transport - USA

Crashed in unknown circumstances. The pilot was injured.

Boeing Air Transport

Crashed in unknown circumstances. The pilot was injured.

Boeing Air Transport

Few minutes after his departure from Oakland Airport, bound for Reno, the pilot encountered poor visibility. He reduced his altitude, apparently to establish a visual contact with the ground, when the airplane impacted the slope of a mountain located in Rocky Ridge, about 11 miles northeast of Oakland Airport. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was killed.

Boeing Air Transport

While on a night mail flight from Chicago to Omaha, the pilot encountered an unexpected situation. He reduced his altitude and attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed and came to rest upside down, bursting into flames. The pilot was uninjured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Western Canada Airways

After landing at Pembina Airport, the pilot was taxiing to the hangar when the aircraft caught fire for unknown reasons. There were no casualties and the aircraft was destroyed by fire.

Pacific Air Transport

While approaching Fresno at night at an altitude of 2,000 feet, the airplane caught fire. The pilot attempted an emergency landing in a field when the aircraft crashed and burnt. The pilot evacuated safely and the aircraft was destroyed by fire.

Varney Air Transport - VAT

Shortly after takeoff from Portland-Swan Island Airport, while climbing, the engine exploded. The pilot ditched the airplane in the Willamette River off the airfield. The pilot was injured and the passengers was killed.

Pacific Air Transport

On approach to Burbank Airport, the pilot encountered poor visibility due to the night and foggy conditions. On final, the airplane went out of control and crashed, killing all three occupants.

Western Air Express

Crashed in unknown circumstances.

Boeing Air Transport

While cruising at night on a mail flight from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, the pilot encountered poor weather conditions with heavy snow falls. Control was lost and the airplane crashed in a field located 6 miles east of Knight. The pilot Paul 'Red' Andret was killed.

Varney Air Lines - VAL

The pilot, sole on board, was completing a night mail flight from Portland to Pasco. While approaching Pasco, he encountered poor visibility due to foggy conditions. Control was lost and the airplane crashed, killing the pilot.

Boeing Air Transport

The pilot, sole on board, departed Oakland on a mail flight to Salt Lake City. While on approach at night, he encountered poor weather conditions with snow falls. Control was lost and the airplane crashed some 14 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The pilot was killed.

Pacific Air Transport

Shortly after takeoff from Oakland Airport, while climbing at night, the pilot encountered an unexpected situation. He attempted to return to the airport when he lost control of the airplane that crashed in the San Francisco Bay, bursting into flames. All four occupants were killed.

Pacific Air Transport

Following an uneventful flight from San Diego, the pilot initiated a night approach to Hollywood-Burbank Airport. The visibility was poor due to the night and foggy conditions. On approach, the airplane impacted the slope of a mountain located in the La Tuna Canyon Park, about 5 km northeast of the airfield. The aircraft was destroyed and both occupants were killed.

Boeing Air Transport

An in-flight fire forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. The aircraft flipped over and came to rest, bursting into flames. All three occupants were injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Varney Air Lines - VAL

En route from Portland to Pasco, the pilot encountered poor visibility due to foggy conditions. Too low, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Bluff located some 22 km northeast of Washougal. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was killed.

Pacific Air Transport

En route from Medford to Seattle, the pilot lost his orientation due to foggy conditions. He attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed in an uninhabited area. The pilot walked for about 24 hours in deep snow to find help.

Pacific Air Transport

En route from Bakersfield to Fresno (route CAM 8), the pilot encountered poor weather conditions with snow falls and fog. While cruising at low altitude in limited visibility, the aircraft hit the slope of a mountain located in the Tehachapi Mountain Range. The wreckage was found six miles east of Gorman and all three occupants were killed. Crew: Flavius A. Donaldson, pilot, George A. Rogers, mechanic. Passenger: Jean Markow.

Western Canada Airways

On final approach to Edmonton Airport in stormy weather, the aircraft went out of control and crashed in the Southesk district. Both passengers and the pilot Pat Holden were killed while no one on the ground was hurt.

Varney Air Lines - VAL

En route, technical problems forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. Upon impact, the aircraft flipped over and came to rest, bursting into flames. The pilot escaped unhurt while the aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire.

Western Canada Airways

Crashed on landing. All occupants escaped unhurt while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Pacific Air Transport

While taking from San Jose Airport, the aircraft collided with a wagon and crashed near the runway. The pilot was slightly injured and there was no casualty on ground.

Boeing Air Transport

En route, poor weather conditions forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. Both occupants were uninjured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Boeing Air Transport

Upon landing at Offutt AFB, the airplane went out of control and crashed. The pilot, sole on board, was injured.

Boeing Air Transport

The pilot was performing a mail flight. While cruising in the region of Omaha, he encountered poor weather conditions and low visibility due to a heavy snow falls. Too low, the aircraft hit the slope of a mountain and crashed. The pilot was seriously injured.

Pacific Air Transport

On the morning of October 2, 1928, Pacific Air Transport pilot Grant Donaldson took off in NC5339 from Medford, Oregon, on his way to Portland with nine pounds of mail and passenger D. P. Donovan, a West Coast drugstore chain owner and a gemstone dealer who carried a satchel of diamonds. An hour into scud-running beneath low-lying clouds, Donaldson heard booming noises and discovered that he was scraping treetops. There was no time to recover. The 40C dove forward “as if it had been a giant scythe,” reported the Roseburg, Oregon News-Review. “One tree, nearly a foot in diameter was cut off about 25 feet from the ground.” Donaldson rushed out of the cockpit as the biplane’s nitrate-doped cotton skin fueled a fire so intense it melted the aircraft’s metal propeller. He fought through the flames to check on his passenger, but saw that Donovan had been killed on impact. Donaldson’s actions left him with severe burns; for the rest of his life he would have a scar tissue circumscription of flight goggles on his face. Bloody and incoherent, Donaldson staggered down to a highway, where a preacher and his family hurriedly drove him to a pharmacy nine miles north, in Canyonville. “The next day the airline went up there and they got the remains of poor Donovan,” says Pemberton. “They picked out what diamonds they could, and they salvaged what they could of the engine.” For years afterward, townspeople hiked up to the crash site to sift for diamonds. (Rumors abound of Canyonville wives who own rings set with diamonds from the crash.) In 1929, they hacksawed the tail section off to use as a nursery school jungle gym. Source: www.airspacemag.com

Boeing Air Transport

While flying in heavy snow falls, the pilot lost his orientation and the control of the aircraft that crashed in a field in Federal Way. The passenger was killed and the pilot was injured.

Boeing Air Transport

En route from Omaha to Cheyenne, the pilot lost control of the aircraft after a propeller blade separated in flight. The pilot was killed while the passenger was seriously injured.