Continental Airlines Flight 11

Continental Airlines Flight 11

A Continental Airlines Boeing 707 similar to the aircraft involved in the crash
Bombing
Date	May 22, 1962
Summary	Suicide bombing (suicide committed as an insurance fraud by a passenger)
Site	Union Township, Putnam County near Unionville, Missouri, United States 40°32′49.43″N 93°3′28.25″W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 707-124
Operator	Continental Airlines
Registration	N70775
Flight origin	O'Hare International Airport Chicago, Illinois
Destination	Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, Kansas City, Missouri
Passengers	37
Crew	8
Fatalities	45 (44 initially)
Survivors	0 (1 initially)

Continental Airlines Flight 11, registration N70775, was a Boeing 707 aircraft which exploded in the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, while en route from O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, to Kansas City, Missouri, on May 22, 1962. The aircraft crashed in a clover field near Unionville, in Putnam County, Missouri, killing all 45 crew and passengers on board. The investigation determined the cause of the crash was a suicide bombing committed as insurance fraud.

Crash

Continental Airlines Flight 11 memorial erected in Unionville, Missouri

Thomas G. Doty arrived at the gate after the doors had been closed. Although airline policy is that once the doors are closed they are not to be reopened, Doty was allowed to board.

Flight 11 departed O'Hare at 8:35 p.m. The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Fred R. Gray (50); First Officer Edward J. Sullivan (41); and Flight Engineer Jack D. Allen (32). The flight was routine until just before the Mississippi River when it deviated from its filed flight plan to the north to avoid a line of thunderstorms. In the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, the radar image of the aircraft disappeared from the scope of the Waverly, Iowa, Flight Following Service. At approximately 9:17 p.m. an explosion occurred in the right rear lavatory, resulting in separation of the tail section from the fuselage. The flight crew initiated the required emergency descent procedures and donned their smoke masks due to the dense fog that formed in the cabin immediately after decompression. Following separation of the tail, the remaining aircraft structure pitched nose down violently, causing the engines to tear off, after which it fell in uncontrolled gyrations. The fuselage of the Boeing 707, minus the aft 38 feet (12 m), and with part of the left and most of the right wing intact, struck the ground, headed westerly down a 10-degree slope of an alfalfa field.

Witnesses in and around both Cincinnati, Iowa and Unionville reported hearing loud and unusual noises at around 9:20 p.m., and two more saw a big flash or ball of fire in the sky. A B-47 Stratojet bomber flying out of Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas, was flying at the altitude of 26,500 ft (8,100 m) in the vicinity of Kirksville, Missouri. The aircraft commander saw a bright flash in the sky forward of and above his aircraft's position. After referring to his navigation logs he estimated the flash to have occurred at 9:22 p.m. near the location where the last radar target of Flight 11 had been seen. Most of the fuselage was found near Unionville, but the engines and parts of the tail section and left wing were found up to six miles (9.7 km) away from the main wreckage.

Of the 45 individuals on board, 44 were dead when rescuers reached the crash site. One passenger, a 27-year-old man from Evanston, Illinois, died of internal injuries at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Centerville, Iowa, an hour and a half after being rescued.

Investigation

FBI agents discovered that Doty, a married man with a five-year-old daughter, had purchased a life insurance policy from Mutual of Omaha for $150,000 (roughly equivalent to $1.2 million in 2023 dollars), the maximum available; his death would also bring in another $150,000 in additional insurance (some purchased at the airport) and death benefits. Doty had recently been arrested for armed robbery, and was to soon face a preliminary hearing in the matter. Investigators determined that Doty had purchased six sticks of dynamite for 29 cents each ($2.24 in 2023) shortly before the crash and were able to deduce that a bomb had been placed in the used towel bin of the right rear lavatory. Doty went into the lavatory with his briefcase and blew himself up, killing himself and everyone on board. His motive was that his wife and daughter would collect on the $300,000 of life insurance. His widow attempted to collect on the insurance, but, when Doty's death was ruled a suicide, the policy was voided, and the widow was only able to get a three dollar refund ($23.68 in 2023). Not talking publicly about the bombing, she died in 2008 at the age of 81.

In July 2010, a memorial was erected near the crash site in Unionville, Missouri on the anniversary of the crash.

In May 2012 a special 50th anniversary memorial service was held in Unionville.

In popular culture

• Flight 11 is dramatized in Aircrash Confidential.
• The event partially inspired Arthur Hailey's novel Airport.

See also

• 1962 in aviation
• Aviation safety
• National Airlines Flight 2511, US - 1960 in-flight suicide bombing for insurance fraud
• Canadian Pacific Flight 108, Canada – 1949 in-flight bombing for murder and insurance fraud
• China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, China – 2002 in-flight arson caused by insurance fraud
• Federal Express Flight 705, US - 1994 attempted in-flight hijacking for insurance fraud that was foiled by the aircraft's crew
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• United Airlines Flight 629, US – 1955 in-flight bombing for murder and insurance fraud
• Comair Flight 206

External links

• "Jet Crashes-Kills 45 L A. Bound 707 Plummets from Violent Storm". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, California. 1962-05-23. p. 1.
• DePuy, Charles B. "The untold story of Continental Flight 11." Daily Iowegian at Journal Express. May 22, 2012.
• Bombing description for Continental Flight 11 at the Aviation Safety Network