National Air and Space Museum Archives

1960 New York Mid-Air Collision Air Traffic Control Testimony Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2019.0059
Creators:
United States. National Transportation Safety Board
Wesche, William A., Jr.
Dates:
1946
1960 - 1961
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.02 Cubic feet
2 legal folders
Repository:
This collection consists of material relating the 1960 New York Mid-Air Collision including FAA and CAB reports on the accident and material relating to the National Transportation Safety Board's formal hearing, including testimony by William A. Wesche, Jr.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists mainly of material relating the 1960 New York Mid-Air Collision including FAA and CAB reports on the accident and material relating to the National Transportation Safety Board's formal hearing, including testimony by William A. Wesche, Jr. The testimony is on two reel-to reel tapes, with copies on three cassette tapes, a flash drive and CDR, as well as handwritten statement drafts by Wesche which he used to compose his official testimony, and a video of an air disaster television series highlighting this accident. The collection also contains the Army /Navy/CAA 39-page report, "Standards for the Control of Instrument Flight Rule Traffic" (ANC-IFC), January 1, 1946.

Arrangement

Arrangement
No arrangement.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
On 16 December 1960, the United Airlines Douglas DC-8 Mainliner Will Rogers (Flight 826), bound for Idlewild Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City, collided with the TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation Star of Sicily (Flight 266) as it was descending into the city's LaGuardia Airport. One plane crashed on Staten Island, the other into Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 people on both aircraft and six people on the ground; at the time, it was the deadliest aviation disaster. The probable cause of the accident was found to be that the United flight proceeded beyond its clearance limit and the confines of the airspace allocated to the flight by Air Traffic Control. William A Wesche, Jr., was a Federal Aviation Agency Supervisory Air Traffic Control Specialist at Idlewild Airport Traffic Control Tower, and was the Watch Supervisor on duty during the accident.

Administration

Author
Patti Williams
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Jeffrey Wesche, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0059
Processing Information
Arranged, described, and encoded by Patti Williams, 2020.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Preferred Citation
1960 New York Mid-Air Collision Air Traffic Control Testimony Collection, NASM.2019.0059, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Aeronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Airlines -- Safety measures Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Airlines Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings -- Audiotapes -- Audio cassettes -- Music Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aircraft accidents Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Trans World Airlines Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United Air Lines, Inc. Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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