L-1049 Super Constellation, Eastern Flight 853

L-1049G Super Constellation, Eastern Air Lines N6218C, c. 1965
(Minicraft Super Constellation in 1/144 scale, kit # 14491 c. 2002, first released 1998)

On December 4, 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 853 (N6218C), a Lockheed Super Constellation en route from Boston to Newark, collided in mid-air with Trans World Airlines Flight 42 (N748TW), a Boeing 707-131B en route from San Francisco to JFK in New York, over Carmel, New York

The TWA 707 and the EAL Constellation approached the Carmel VORTAC at the same time. As the Constellation emerged from a cloud, First Officer Roger I. Holt Jr. saw the Boeing in his right side window at the 2 o'clock position. Holt shouted, "Look out," placed his hands on the control wheel, and made a rapid application of up elevator simultaneously with Captain White, causing crew members and passengers to be forced down into their seats.

Aboard the Boeing, the crew was preparing for arrival at JFK International, flying in clear air above an overcast sky with good visibility as they approached Carmel. On seeing an aircraft at his 10 o'clock position on what appeared to be a collision course Capt. Thomas H. Carroll, he immediately disengaged the autopilot, put the wheel hard over to the right, and pulled back on the yoke. His copilot, First Officer Leo M. Smith, also grabbed the controls and acted together with him. Before the aircraft could maneuver clear of the danger, two shocks were felt and the Boeing entered a steep dive; the Boeing's left wing had struck the tail of the Constellation and both aircraft were out of control.

The Boeing crew recovered from the dive, declared an emergency, and eventually made a safe landing on Runway 31L.

The Constellation continued to climb following the collision. The crew felt the aircraft shudder and begin a left-turning dive back into the clouds. There was no response from the controls or trim tabs, but the crew discovered that a degree of control was available by adjusting the throttles. The aircraft descended through solid clouds and a recovery was made below the clouds using throttles only. The pilots discovered a throttle setting that would maintain a descent in level attitude, but it was obvious to the pilots that the Constellation was badly damaged and that they needed to make an emergency landing.

Around two miles ahead, White spotted a pasture halfway up Hunt Mountain, a 900 ft ridge running perpendicular to the Constellation's flightpath. He aligned the aircraft using asymmetric thrust, told passengers to brace themselves, and descended into the upward-sloping hillside with wheels and flaps retracted. At the last moment he jammed the throttles forward to pitch up the aircraft's nose, letting the Constellation pancake into the 15-percent slope.

The aircraft came to rest on the slope. The fuselage had been broken into three pieces, and all the engines had separated from their nacelles. The cockpit and cabin crews survived the crash landing and worked inside and outside the broken fuselage to evacuate the survivors from the flaming wreckage. Survivors were transported to hospitals in Connecticut and New York, where two passengers later died of their injuries. Firefighters later discovered two bodies in the fuselage - that of a passenger in the forward section, and that of Captain White, who had returned to the cabin to help the passenger. Both had died from smoke inhalation.

The model represents one of the accident aircraft, L-1049G Super Constellation N6218C operating Eastern Airlines Flight 853.

The kit is almost entirely OOB with slight modifications to the nose and mounted on a brass pedestal. Aircraft N number markings were printed at home to depict accident aircraft. Paints are rattlecan grey and white, and AlClad II metallics.

May they rest in peace.