What happened
On the morning of the accident, an Electra operating as Flight 361 was prepared for a flight from Boston to St. Louis, Missouri, with a scheduled stop at LaGuardia Airport. Shortly before the 07:16LT departure, a crew reconfiguration occurred when a check pilot joined the aircraft to evaluate a flight engineer. Following established company procedures and by mutual consent of the crew, the check pilot assumed the role of pilot-in-command in the left seat, while the original captain moved to the jump seat.
The flight proceeded without incident until the aircraft reached its intermediate destination. During the final approach phase at LaGuardia, the aircraft descended too low and made contact with a dyke using its main landing gear. The impact led to a crash landing that caused significant damage to the airframe and ignited a fire. Of the 76 persons on board, approximately half suffered minor injuries or shock, though there were no fatalities.
Findings
The investigation concluded that the primary reason for the accident was the pilot's failure to correctly plan and carry out the approach for landing. The assessment also noted two contributing environmental factors: the limited length of the runway available and the fact that the upper part of the dyke was not marked.