On Thursday, December 28, 1978, I entered a camera store at Jantzen Beach Shopping Center located a few miles west of Portland International Airport. I looked at the live news broadcast on the television sitting on the counter. A commercial jet had crashed in a residential area however it took awhile before it dawned on me that the crash site was located in Portland.According to "The Columbian" newspaper and Wikipedia, about 1815 Pacific standard time United Airlines Flight 173 en-route from Denver, CO to Portland, OR with 181 passengers and a crew of eight had crashed into two vacant houses, one at 15808 E. Burnside, and came to rest in a grove of firs in a residential area approximately five miles east of Portland International Airport. The wreckage path was about 1,554 ft long and about 130 ft wide.
When the landing gear was lowered, only two of the landing gear indicator lights lit up. The plane repeatedly circled in the vicinity of Portland while the crew investigated the problem. Still uncertain, the pilot decided to go around once again, against the recommendation of the co-pilot. As a result the plane ran out of fuel and crash-landed at 285 feet elevation. There were 24 serious injuries, and ten deaths.
The investigation revealed that there was, in fact, no problem with the landing gear and that the unlit indicator light bulb had burnt out. The captain had failed to monitor properly the aircraft's fuel state and to properly respond to the low fuel state and the crewmember's advisories regarding fuel state. This resulted in fuel exhaustion to all engines. His inattention resulted from preoccupation with a landing gear malfunction and preparations for a possible landing emergency. The other two flight crewmembers failed to either to fully comprehend the criticality of the fuel state or to successfully communicate their concern to the captain.
As a result of this accident United Airlines instituted the industry’s first Crew Resource Management/Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) program, which proved to be so successful that it is now used throughout the world.
Instructions for logging waymark: A photograph is required of you (or your GPS receiver, if you are waymarking solo) and the crash site.