Incident
United Air Lines Flight 736 was a scheduled transcontinental passenger service operating daily between Los Angeles and New York City. On April 21, 1958, the aircraft assigned to the flight, a Douglas DC-7, was flying over Clark County, Nevada, under clear weather conditions. While at an altitude of 21,000 feet (6,400 meters), the airliner collided in mid-air with a United States Air Force fighter jet that was crewed by two pilots. Both aircraft went out of control and crashed into unpopulated desert terrain southwest of Las Vegas. There were no survivors among the 47 occupants of the DC-7 or the two pilots of the fighter jet.
Aftermath
The loss of Flight 736 was one of several mid-air collisions involving passenger aircraft that occurred in the United States during the 1950s. This event helped accelerate improvements in air traffic control systems nationwide and led to a major reorganization of federal government aviation authorities.