What happened
On the evening of January 29, 1963, a Viscount 812 operated by Continental Air Lines, registered as N242V, was conducting a scheduled flight from Midland, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. While operating under visual flight conditions, the aircraft began a straight-in approach toward runway 18 at Kansas City Municipal Airport.
During the final stages of the descent, the aircraft failed to make contact with the runway surface. Instead, the plane maintained a nose-up pitch as it overflew the landing strip. At an altitude of roughly 90 feet near the southern end of the runway, the aircraft experienced a sudden, sharp nose-down pitch while the wings remained level. The subsequent dive caused the aircraft to strike the ground, with the primary wreckage coming to a stop approximately 680 feet past the runway threshold.
The impact and the following fire resulted in the total destruction of the airframe. There were eight fatalities in total, consisting of five passengers and three crew members.
Findings
Investigations into the crash determined that an unseen buildup of ice on the horizontal stabilizer was the primary factor. This ice accumulation, when paired with a particular aircraft configuration and airspeed, led to a critical loss of pitch control during the approach.