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1956 Atlantic R6D-1 disappearance

Aircraft disappearance

Field	Value
name	1956 Atlantic R6D-1 disappearance
occurrence_type	Accident
image	Douglas R6D-1 MATS in flight in the 1950s.jpeg
image_size	300
caption	A U.S. Navy R6D-1 Liftmaster, similar to the accident aircraft, operating for the Military Air Transport Service in the 1950s.
date
summary	Unknown
site	Atlantic Ocean, 590 km (368.8 miles) southwest of Land's End, United Kingdom
coordinates
aircraft_type	Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster
operator	United States Navy, Military Air Transport Service (MATS)
tail_number	BuNo 131588
origin	RAF Lakenheath, England
destination	Lajes Field, Azores
passengers	50
crew	9
fatalities	59
survivors	0

The 1956 Atlantic R6D-1 disappearance involved a Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster (BuNo 131588) of the United States Navy which disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on 10 October 1956 with the loss of all 59 people on board.

Accident

The R6D-1 – the U.S. Navy version of the United States Air Force C-118 Liftmaster and the civilian Douglas DC-6B airliner – was carrying a crew of nine and 50 passengers on a scheduled Military Air Transport Service flight from RAF Lakenheath, England, to Lajes Field in the Azores on 10 October 1956 when it disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean about 590 km southwest of Land's End, England, at approximately 22:10.

All of the passengers were personnel of the U.S. Air Forces 307th Bombardment Wing stationed at Lincoln Air Force Base, Nebraska, returning to the United States from 90 days of temporary duty in England. The disappearance was the second major accident involving a Navy R6D-1 in 19 months, an R6D-1 having crashed in Hawaii in March 1955.

A 14-day search for the aircraft and survivors found only wheels and a life raft floating 596 km southwest of Lands End. No trace of the crew or passengers was ever found.

References

[http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/PRELIM.PDF Grossnick, Roy A., ''United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, undated] {{webarchive. link. (2012-09-12 , {{ISBN). 0-945274-34-3, p. 214, claims the date was 11 October 1956.
[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19561010-0 Aviation Safety Network Aircraft Accident Douglas R6D-1 (DC-6) 131588 Land's End, UK]
"Chronology of Significant Events in Naval Aviation: "Naval Air Transport" 1941 -- 1999".
[http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries15.html US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (130265 to 135773)]
Claims that no trace of the aircraft were ever found, such as at [http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries15.html US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (130265 to 135773)], appear to be erroneous; [http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/PRELIM.PDF Grossnick, Roy A., ''United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, undated] {{webarchive. link. (2012-09-12 , {{ISBN). 0-945274-34-3, p. 214, states that wreckage, but no trace of the passengers, was found.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

accidents-and-incidents-involving-united-states-navy-and-marine-corps-aircraft aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-the-atlantic-ocean accidents-and-incidents-involving-the-douglas-dc-6 aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-1956 1956-in-england 1956-in-portugal missing-aircraft united-states-navy-in-the-20th-century military-history-of-the-atlantic-ocean october-1956

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