1960 Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Electra Crash at Boston Logan (N5533)

Accident Overview and Immediate Sequence of Events On October 4, 1960, at 1740 Eastern Daylight Time, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Electra, registration N5533, crashed into Winthrop Bay immediately after taking off from runway 9 at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. The aircraft was totally destroyed, and ten of the 72 persons aboard survived the crash. A few seconds after becoming airborne, the aircraft struck a flock of starlings. A number of these birds were ingested in engines Nos. 1, 2, and 4. Engine No. 1 was shut down and its propeller was feathered. Engines Nos. 2 and 4 experienced a substantial momentary loss of power. This abrupt and intermittent loss and recovery of power resulted in the aircraft yawing to the left and decelerating to the stall speed. As speed decayed during the continued yaw and skidding left turn, the stall speed was reached; the left wing dropped, the nose pitched up, and the aircraft rolled left into a spin and fell almost vertically into the water. An altitude of less than 150 feet precluded recovery.