Status:	Final
Date:	13 JUN 1947
Time:	18:16
Type:	Douglas C-54-DO
Operator:	Pennsylvania-Central Airlines
Registration:	N88842
C/n / msn:	3112
First flight:	1942
Total airframe hrs:	8038
Engines:	4 Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7
Crew:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Passengers:	Fatalities: 47 / Occupants: 47
Total:	Fatalities: 50 / Occupants: 50
Airplane damage:	Destroyed
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	13 km (8.1 mls) SE of Charles Town, WV (United States of America)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Pittsburgh (unknown airport), PA, United States of America
Destination airport:	Washington-National Airport, DC (DCA/KDCA), United States of America
Flightnumber:	410

Narrative:
Flight 410 departed Chicago, at 13:52 on an instrument flight plan with destination Norfolk and with stops scheduled at Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Washington. The flight departed Pittsburgh at 17:24 proceeded to Washington at 7,000 feet. At 18:03 the plane started its descent into Washington. While descending, the plane struck a ridge named Lookout Rock in the Blue Ridge Mountains at an elevation of approximately 1,425 feet

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board finds that the probable cause of this accident was the action of the pilot in descending below the minimum en route altitude under conditions of weather which prevented adequate visual reference to the ground. A contributing cause was the faulty clearance given by Airway Traffic Control, tacitly approved by the company dispatcher, and accepted by Flight 410."

Events:

Sources:
» CAB File No. 1-0066-47