United Air Lines Flight 553
Overview of the accident site | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | December 8, 1972 |
| Summary | Stall during approach due to pilot error |
| Site | West Lawn, Illinois.
Southeast of Chicago Midway International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, United States 41°45′55″N 87°42′58″W / 41.7653°N 87.7160°W |
| Total fatalities | 45 |
| Total injuries | 18 |
| Aircraft | |
| A United Air Lines Boeing 737-222 similar to the aircraft involved in the accident | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-222 |
| Aircraft name | City of Lincoln |
| Operator | United Air Lines |
| IATA flight No. | UA553 |
| ICAO flight No. | UAL553 |
| Call sign | UNITED 553 |
| Registration | N9031U |
| Flight origin | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C., United States |
| Stopover | Chicago Midway International Airport Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Destination | Eppley Airfield, Omaha, Nebraska, United States |
| Occupants | 61 |
| Passengers | 55 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 43 |
| Injuries | 16 |
| Survivors | 18 |
| Ground casualties | |
| Ground fatalities | 2 |
| Ground injuries | 2 |
United Air Lines Flight 553 was a scheduled domestic flight from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska, via Chicago Midway International Airport. On December 8, 1972, the Boeing 737-222 serving the flight, City of Lincoln registration N9031U,: 2 crashed while approaching Midway Airport.: 1 The probable cause of the crash was concluded to be the captain's failure to properly manage the flight.
The plane crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying five houses; there was an intense ground fire. Forty-three of the 61 aboard the aircraft and two on the ground were killed. Among the passengers killed were Illinois congressman George W. Collins, CBS News correspondent Michele Clark and Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. The crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 737, which had entered airline service nearly five years earlier in February 1968.