Continental Air Lines Flight 290 (N242V)

Overview and Loss of Life On January 29, 1963, Continental Air Lines Flight 290, a Vickers Viscount 812 bearing the registration N242V, crashed at Kansas City Municipal Airport in Kansas City, Missouri. The aircraft was operating a regularly scheduled flight from Midland, Texas. The accident occurred at 2244 central standard time. All eight people on board—three crew members and five passengers—were killed, and the aircraft was destroyed by the impact and a subsequent fire. ## Sequence of Events The aircraft made a straight-in approach to land on runway 18 under visual flight conditions. Instead of touching down, the plane continued to fly over the runway in a nose-up attitude. Near the south end of the runway, from an altitude of approximately 90 feet, the aircraft nosed over sharply with its wings level and dived into the ground. The main wreckage came to rest 680 feet beyond the end of the runway. ## Probable Cause The official investigation determined that the probable cause of the accident was an undetected accretion of ice on the horizontal stabilizer. In conjunction with a specific airspeed and aircraft configuration, this ice accretion caused a loss of pitch control.