Cal Poly football team plane crash

Cal Poly football team plane crash

C-46 similar to accident aircraft
Accident summary
Date	October 29, 1960
Summary	Pilot error; overloading
Site	Toledo Express Airport, Ohio, U.S.
Passengers	45
Crew	3
Fatalities	22
Survivors	26
Aircraft type	Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando
Operator	Arctic Pacific
Registration	N1244N

The Cal Poly football team plane crash occurred on October 29, 1960, at 22:02 EST near Toledo, Ohio.

A twin-engine C-46 propliner, registration N1244N, operated as a domestic charter flight by Arctic Pacific, carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs college football team, crashed during takeoff at the Toledo Express Airport outside Toledo. The aircraft, a veteran of World War II, broke in two and caught fire on impact. Of the 48 on board, 22 were killed, including 16 players, a student manager, and a Cal Poly football booster.

Investigation

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and concluded that the aircraft had been overloaded by 2,000 lb (910 kg) above its maximum certificated gross takeoff weight of 47,100 lb (21,360 kg) and that there was a partial power loss in the left engine prior to the crash.

Prior to takeoff the weather at the airport steadily deteriorated; at 7 pm the visibility was 3/4-mile (1.2 km), down to 1/16-mile (100 m) at 8:37 pm, and zero at the time of the accident. The CAB accident report states that stemming from the crash, the FAA published a notice in the Airman's Guide that prohibited takeoff for commercial aircraft when the visibility is below 1/4 mile (400 m), or the runway visual range is below 2,000 ft (600 m).

The CAB issued the following Probable Cause statement in its final report:

The accident was due to loss of control during a premature lift-off. Contributing factors were the overweight aircraft, weather conditions, and partial loss of power in the left engine.

Aftermath

The pilot who made the decision to take off was flying on a license that had been revoked, but was allowed to fly pending an appeal. Following the crash, the Arctic-Pacific Company lost its certificate to charter airplanes.

Among the survivors was quarterback Ted Tollner, later the head coach at USC and San Diego State. At the time of the crash, Bowling Green State had been the easternmost opposing school ever to play football against Cal Poly. The university canceled the final three games of the 1960 season.

Hall of Fame coach John Madden, a Cal Poly alumnus, has a fear of flying which is commonly attributed to the crash, although he has said it instead stems from claustrophobia. He played football for the Mustangs during the 1957 and 1958 seasons. Madden was coaching at the nearby Allan Hancock Junior College at the time of the crash and knew many passengers aboard the plane.

As a result of the crash, Cal Poly did not play any road games outside California until 1969, a 14–0 loss at Montana in Missoula. Cal Poly did not play another road game east of the Rocky Mountains until 1978, a 17–0 loss to Winston-Salem State in North Carolina in the NCAA Division II playoffs. They did not play another regular season game east of the Rockies until 1989, a 45–20 loss to Angelo State in Texas.

Mercy Bowl

On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1961, Los Angeles County Supervisor Warren Dorn and Bob Hope sponsored a "Mercy Bowl" in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum between Fresno State and Bowling Green State to raise a memorial fund for the survivors and bereaved families. The event raised about $200,000 from a crowd of 33,000.

Campus memorials at Cal Poly

Memorial plaques for the crash can be found on campus at Mott Gym and the Mustang horse statue. A permanent memorial plaza opened with the new Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The memorial has 18 copper pillars, one for each of the Cal Poly-affiliated individuals who died in the crash. Each pillar rises to the height of the person honored and is adorned with a plaque about that individual's life.

On September 29, 2006, the 1960 football team was inducted into the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame, and the following night former players and members of the crash victims families stood at mid-field during a half time memorial.

Similar incidents

Due to the frequent travel of sports teams, a significant number of crashes have involved such groups:

• The 1949 crash at Superga, where the Torino F.C. side known as Il Grande Torino that dominated post-war Italian football was wiped out. 18 players died, along with five club officials. All 31 people on the plane died.
• In 1961, the entire United States Figure Skating team died in the crash of Sabena Flight 548.
• A 1970 crash in Colorado that killed a group of American football players from Wichita State University.
• The 1970 crash of Southern Airways Flight 932 that killed a group of American football players from Marshall University.
• The 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes mountains that killed a number of rugby players from Uruguay. (Some survivors were rescued more than two months later.)
• The 1977 crash of a chartered DC-3 carrying the entire University of Evansville men's basketball team, in a field near the Evansville, Indiana airport.
• The 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision, killing seventeen Pakhtakor Soviet football team players and staff members.
• In 1987, the entire roster of Peruvian football team Alianza Lima died in an air crash which claimed a total of 43 lives; the only survivor being a member of the crew.
• The 1989 crash of Surinam Airways Flight 764 killed 15 of Surinamese players known as "The Colorful 11", whose members played professional football in the Netherlands. A total of 176 people were killed and just 11 survived.
• A 1993 crash in the Atlantic offshore of Gabon killed 18 members of the Zambia national football team. There were no survivors among the total of 30 people on board.
• A 2001 Oklahoma State basketball team plane crash in Colorado killed two Oklahoma State University basketball players and eight other individuals associated with the team.
• The 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster killed the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League ice hockey team.

External links

• Mustang Memorial Plaza (PDF) - Dedication ceremony photos