lotnictwo: Northwest Airlines Flight 710

After unexpectedly encountering clear-air turbulence at 18,000 feet (5,500 m), the aircraft's right wing and part of the left wing separated, causing the fuselage to plummet and impact the ground at a nearly 90-degree angle, leaving a deep crater.

Northwest Airlines Flight 710 was a scheduled flight between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Miami, Florida, with a stop in Chicago. On March 17, 1960, the six-month-old Lockheed L-188 Electra operating the flight broke up in midair in southern Indiana, near Cannelton, killing all 63 people on board. After unexpectedly encountering clear-air turbulence at 18,000 feet (5,500 m), the aircraft's right wing and part of the left wing separated, causing the fuselage to plummet and impact the ground at a nearly 90-degree angle, leaving a deep crater. Portions of the wings landed up to four miles (six kilometers) away. The in-flight breakup of the Electra closely resembled the September 1959 crash of Braniff International Airways Flight 542 near Buffalo, Texas, which killed all 34 occupants. That flight was also operated by a nearly new Electra. In that crash, the left wing separated and landed about one mile (two kilometers) from the main wreckage. Investigators were unable to determine the cause at the time, but the similarities between the two crashes led the Federal Aviation Agency to place flight restrictions on the Electra pending identification of the cause, and to order Lockheed to reevaluate the aircraft's structural integrity and demonstrate its airworthiness. The subsequent investigation, involving more than 250 engineers and technicians, determined that when an Electra with dam…

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