What happened
A chartered Convair CV-440 was operating a flight for Wolper Productions Inc., transporting a television production crew from Bishop to Burbank. The aircraft initially departed Hollywood-Burbank Airport at 18:14 to collect passengers in Bishop. During the initial leg of the journey, the crew operated under visual flight rules (VFR) and subsequently cancelled their VFR flight plan with the Tonopah Flight Service Station at 19:10. For the return segment from Bishop to Burbank, the crew filed an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan.
The aircraft arrived in Bishop at 19:20, where 32 passengers and the crew boarded along with various production equipment. After departing the gate at approximately 20:20, the crew requested the activation of their IFR clearance. Following takeoff from runway 12, the aircraft performed a climbing right turn near the Bishop VOR before heading east-southeasterly. At 20:24, the crew notified Tonopah Flight Service Station that they were climbing under VFR while awaiting their IFR clearance.
Shortly after this communication, at approximately 20:28, the aircraft impacted a foothill within the White Mountain range at an altitude of 6,100 feet. At the moment of impact, the plane was traveling on a magnetic heading of roughly 175° with a right bank of approximately 25°. The accident resulted in 36 fatalities.
Findings
Investigators were unable to establish a definitive reason for the crash. Specifically, it could not be determined why the crew failed to maintain adequate separation from mountainous terrain while operating under visual flight rules at night.