| Estado: | Final |
| Fecha: | 01 OCT 1966 |
| Hora: | 20:10 |
| Tipo: | Douglas DC-9-14 |
| Operador: | West Coast Airlines |
| Registración: | N9101 |
| Numéro de série: | 45794/52 |
| Año de Construcción: | 1966 |
| Horas Totales de la Célula: | 164 |
| Motores: | 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-1 |
| Tripulación: | Fatalidades: 5 / Ocupantes: 5 |
| Pasajeros: | Fatalidades: 13 / Ocupantes: 13 |
| Total: | Fatalidades: 18 / Ocupantes: 18 |
| Daños en la Aeronave: | Destruido |
| Consecuencias: | Written off (damaged beyond repair) |
| Ubicación: | 9 km (5.6 milles) S of Wemme, OR (Estados Unidos de América)
 |
| Fase: | En ruta (ENR) |
| Naturaleza: | Vuelo Doméstico Programado |
| Aeropuerto de Salida: | Eugene Airport, OR (EUG/KEUG), Estados Unidos de América |
| Aeropuerto de Llegada: | Portland International Airport, OR (PDX/KPDX), Estados Unidos de América |
| Número de Vuelo: | 956 |
Descripción:West Coast Flight 956 departed San Francisco (SFO) at 18:44 for a flight to Eugene (EUG), Portland (PDX) and Seattle (SEA). The brand new aircraft, which had been delivered to West Coast Airlines just 2 weeks earlier, arrived at Eugene at 19:34 and took off again 18 minutes later. At 20:04 the crew were cleared to descend from the cruising altitude of FL140 to 9000 feet. While turning to heading 300deg, the aircraft descended below the clearance altitude and impacted the wooded eastern slope of Salmon Mountain at the 3830 feet level. The aircraft attitude was 30 degrees right bank, in a 3-4 degree climbing flight path on a heading of 265 degrees.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The descent of the aircraft below its clearance limit and below that of surrounding obstructing terrain, but the Board had been unable to determine the cause of such descent."
Fuentes:
Official accident investigation report
Fotos
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does
not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Eugene Airport, OR to Portland International Airport, OR as the crow flies is 169 km (106 miles).