Paradise Airlines Flight 901A was a scheduled passenger flight from San Jose Municipal Airport to Tahoe Valley Airport, both within California, United States. On March1, 1964, the Lockheed L-049 Constellation serving the flight crashed near Genoa Peak, on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe during a heavy snowstorm, killing all 85 aboard. After the crash site was located, the recovery of the wreckage and the bodies of the victims took most of a month. Crash investigators concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the pilot's decision to attempt to land at Tahoe Valley Airport when the visibility was too low due to clouds and snowstorms in the area. After aborting the landing attempt, the flight crew lost awareness of the plane's location as it flew below the minimum safe altitude in mountainous terrain. The pilot likely tried to fly through a low mountain pass in an attempt to divert to the airport in Reno, Nevada, and crashed into the left shoulder of the pass. At the time, it was the second-deadliest single-plane crash in United States history, and remains the worst accident involving the Lockheed L-049 Constellation.
The airline involved was a two-year-old company that operated discount excursion flights from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe. After the accident, investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uncovered multiple safety violations by the company and grounded all of its flights. After an unsuccessful appeal by the company, the FAA revoked its operating certificate and Paradise Airlines permanently shut down.
Accident
Flight 901A was one of two daily passenger flights operated by Paradise Airlines between San Jose Municipal Airport and Tahoe Valley Airport. On the morning of Sunday, March1, 1964, the Lockheed L-049 Constellation operating the flight took off from the company's base at Metropolitan Oakland International Airport at 8:43 a.m. with only the four crew members aboard, and made a pre-arranged stop at nearby Salinas Airport to pick up a group of eighteen passengers before proceeding to San Jose Airport, where more passengers were waiting. There was only space for 63 of the waiting passengers; the remaining 15 travelers were unable to board because the aircraft was filled to capacity. The airline shuttled them by bus to Oakland to catch a later flight. The aircraft, with 81 passengers and 4 crew members, departed San Jose at 10:39a.m. PST for the 50-minute flight to Lake Tahoe. The passengers who had been bussed to Oakland eventually learned that the later flight was canceled due to poor weather in the mountains.
Although the U.S. Weather Bureau forecast for the Lake Tahoe region predicted weather conditions that would have been unsuitable for flights, the Paradise Airlines dispatcher estimated that by Flight 901A's scheduled arrival time, weather conditions would have improved, so he approved the aircraft's departure. En route, the crew of Flight 901A spoke by radio to the company's other plane, which had just left the Tahoe Airport on its way to Oakland. That crew said that they had encountered icing conditions at , that there were snow showers over Lake Tahoe, and that clouds had obscured the tops of mountains in the vicinity. At 11:21a.m., the pilot of Flight 901A, near Lake Tahoe, reported to the Oakland air route traffic control center that he had spotted a break in the cloud cover, that he could see the airport on the south shore of the lake, and that he was going to proceed with a visual approach. At 11:27 a.m., the pilots contacted the passenger agent for Paradise Airlines at Tahoe Valley Airport to let him know they would be arriving shortly and that he should be prepared for the incoming passengers. The agent informed them that the 11:00a.m. Weather Bureau report described the weather conditions as overcast, estimated ceiling, with visibility. The agent received a radio call from the aircraft two minutes later, but was unable to contact the aircraft in return; this was the last known transmission from the flight. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations for the airport, the weather report had to have a minimum ceiling of and visibility before a commercial passenger aircraft could attempt an approach, so the incoming flight could not be given permission to land.
There were different witnesses who testified either seeing or hearing the aircraft at different points in its flight near South Lake Tahoe. Investigators concluded that the flight flew south across the lake at an altitude of about toward the airport on the south end. According to the witnesses, it was not showing any obvious mechanical problems. Near the airport, the plane entered an area of cloud cover, then added power to the engines and turned back north towards the lake. It then turned to the east and flew away from the lake. By this time the weather conditions had deteriorated into blizzard conditions, and witnesses could only hear the plane engines, which abruptly stopped. The witnesses did not hear the sound of an explosion or crash.
The aircraft struck the ground at the crest of a ridge near Genoa Peak, Nevada. That section of the mountains around the lake, with a maximum height of above sea level, forms the north shoulder of Daggett Pass, a pass several miles across which has an average elevation of above sea level. Just before impact with the ground, the plane struck several of the trees on the ridge's west slope; the pattern of damage to the trees showed that the aircraft was flying almost level at the time. The crash occurred just below the top of the ridge, leaving a trail of wreckage approximately long. If the aircraft had been more to the right at the altitude it was flying, it would have cleared the ridge.
Paradise Airlines had been operating as an intrastate airline in California for about two years, and had not had any accidents in its history before this flight. It is the deadliest accident involving the Lockheed L-049 Constellation, and at the time was the second deadliest single-plane accident in United States history, exceeded only by American Airlines Flight 1 two years earlier.
Aftermath
When the aircraft was determined to be missing, search efforts commenced, but because of the heavy snowstorms in the Tahoe area, efforts were severely limited on the first day. Two small boats searched along a stretch of the lake's shore, but by nightfall, the searchers had found no trace of the missing aircraft. Experienced ski rescue crews and mountaineers waited for a break in the weather before they could join the search. By dawn the next morning, the weather had cleared enough to permit a large-scale search. Air Force Lt. Col. Alexander Sherry headed the operation, involving more than fifty planes and hundreds of people. At 7:36 a.m., an Air Force helicopter spotted the wreckage of the aircraft on the ridge. A second helicopter landed at the site and confirmed that the wreckage was from the missing flight. It also confirmed that there were no survivors. Looters had already been to the site and stolen cash and jewelry from the crash victims.
Douglas County Sheriff's deputies led a group of off-road vehicles to the crash scene and left two deputies there overnight to guard the wreckage. A bulldozer cleared a road to the site along an old logging track to make it easier for rescuers and investigators to reach it. Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigators arrived at the scene of the crash and began to sift through the wreckage of the aircraft for clues as to why it crashed. Most of the wreckage they found was shattered into tiny pieces, with only a few recognizable parts. Portions of the four engines had burned, and there was evidence that a small area of the crash site had burned for four or five hours. The impact site was so close to the top of the ridge that the wheel from the aircraft's nose gear was found on the other side of the mountain.
Rescuers estimated that because of the rugged terrain and the deep snow, it would take several days or possibly even months until after the spring thaw before all the victims could be recovered. The first seven were brought to a makeshift morgue in the CVIC Hall in Minden, Nevada, on March3, two days after the crash, where technicians from the Federal Bureau of Investigation began the process of identification. An additional 43 victims were brought the next day, with officials hurrying to recover bodies before an incoming snowstorm buried them in the snow, making them even harder to locate. The Air Force flew in a helicopter to help shuttle the bodies down from the ridge. Two large Army helicopters brought in three mobile hot air furnaces to the site to help melt away the snow. By March6, searchers had located and recovered all but two of the victims. The last two were eventually located, but by March9, officials had only been able to recover one of them before poor weather forced them to halt recovery operations. The final victim was removed from the site on March30, about a month after the crash. Douglas County district attorney John Chrislaw reported that Paradise Airlines refused to pay the $300 () per victim mortuary expenses of handling the remains, leaving the victims' relatives to bear the cost. Paradise Airlines president Herman Jones denied the report, saying that the expenses would be paid by the airline's insurance company.
Airline grounded
After cancelling flights immediately after the crash, Paradise Airlines resumed flights to Lake Tahoe on the morning of March3, two days after the accident. The FAA immediately ordered an emergency suspension of all flights by the airline, which took effect at noon on March 4. The suspension order said that the airline had shown "a lack of ability and qualifications to conduct a safe intrastate common carrier passenger operation". The agency said that the airline could appeal the suspension, but that in the meantime, it could not conduct flights until a decision was made on the appeal. FAA Regional Director Joseph Tippets said the agency was being so strict with the airline because Flight 901A had been dispatched on its fatal flight at a time when the weather conditions at the destination airport would not have permitted a safe landing. He said that the same day, the airline had also allowed its other aircraft to take off from Tahoe Valley Airport when the local weather conditions prohibited it. Both planes had been flying in conditions where icing would have been likely, but neither of them were equipped with wing de-icing equipment. Instead, the front edges of the wings of the two aircraft had simply been painted black, which made it look like they had de-icing equipment installed.
Company president Herman Jones told reporters that he was puzzled by the FAA's action, saying that to his knowledge, the agency had found no problems with the company's operation or its paperwork. In the days following the suspension, he added that he believed that the FAA's "over-restrictive rules" about flying in adverse weather conditions were to blame for the accident. According to him, the aircraft was only three or four miles from the Tahoe Airport by the time the Tahoe Airport agent told them that the weather report stated that there was only a ceiling. Jones said the pilots may have already had the airport in sight, but instead of landing safely, the pilot probably decided to fly over to Reno in order to avoid being cited by the FAA for landing in violation of the airport weather minimums.