JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Seventy years ago, Jacksonville experienced its first commercial airline disaster that claimed the lives of 17 people.
News4JAX aviation analyst Ed Booth is not only an expert on the history of that crash, but his father and uncle both took part in the crash investigation.
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“The 1955 crash was the deadliest. It involved a Lockheed Constellation aircraft operated by Eastern Airlines,” Booth said.
It was just before 4 AM on Dec. 21, 1955, when Eastern Airlines flight 642 crashed into a neighborhood on Jacksonville’s Northside, not far from the Jacksonville Zoo. The plane that crashed was a Lockheed Constellation.
“This was a passenger airliner, the queen of the fleet,” he said.
The plane had taken off from Miami en route to Boston with a stop in Jacksonville along the way to pick up more passengers. According to this Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Investigation Report, the crash was a result of pilot error as the plane encountered foggy conditions while trying to land at Imeson Airport.
“The pilot was 200 feet off the instrument approach course and well below the glide slope. He hit the trees about three-quarters of a mile short of the main instrument runway at Imeson Airport, just off Main Street,” Booth said.
In other words, the investigation revealed the pilot did not have his instruments lined up correctly while trying to land. There were no flight data recorders back then, so investigators had to rely on physical measurements at the crash scene, instrument readings that were still intact, and witness statements. After the plane smacked into oak trees during the descent, it crashed along Jericho Street and left a trail of debris that extended almost to Main Street. Several homes and cars were destroyed.
“But not a single person on the ground was injured,” said Booth, who went on to say the tragedy led to airlines adopting a better crew coordination policy during landings to determine if a plane is off course.
Seventy years later, the oak trees the plane smacked into are still standing, but Imeson Airport is no longer there. Imeson officially closed in 1969 and was converted into an industrial park.
Twenty-nine years after the deadly crash of flight 642, 13 people died when a Provincetown-Boston airliner crashed during takeoff from Jacksonville International Airport. That became the second most deadly commercial air crash in Jacksonville’s history.