Status:	Final
Date:	07 DEC 1949
Time:	17:15 PST
Type:	Douglas C-47A-1-DL
Operator:	California Arrow Airlines
Registration:	NC60256
C/n / msn:	9201
First flight:	1943
Total airframe hrs:	7722
Engines:	2 Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65
Crew:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Passengers:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Total:	Fatalities: 9 / Occupants: 9
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	10 km (6.3 mls) E of Vallejo, CA (United States of America)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Oakland Municipal Airport, CA (OAK/KOAK), United States of America
Destination airport:	Sacramento (unknown airport), CA, United States of America

Narrative:
The flight departed Burbank at 14:20 for Oakland and Sacramento. Following takeoff from Oakland at 16:56, the flight cruised five miles northwest of the Oakland Airport for seven minutes while waiting for receipt of an instrument flight clearance which provided for a cruising altitude of 4,000 feet to Sacramento. The flight then proceeded on course, and at 17:08 reported over the Richmond Radio Range Intersection, 16 miles northwest of Oakland, stating that it would be over the Fairfield Radio Range Station at 17:23. This was the last communication received from the flight. Proceeding along Amber Airway 8, the aircraft began to descend for unknown reasons. The aircraft struck a hill at an elevation of 782 feet or approximately 3,200 feet below the flights assigned cruising altitude.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "Failure of the flight to fly at the assigned altitude on an instrument flight plan, which resulted in the aircraft striking a hill obscured by clouds."

Sources:
» CAB File No: 1-0132