The First Air Sabotage
October 10, 1933
The First Air Sabotage.
A Boeing 247 operated by United Air Lines explodes mid-flight and crashes near Chesterton, Indiana. All seven people aboard, including four passengers and three crew members, are killed. The plane had departed from Newark, New Jersey, en route to Oakland, California.
The explosion is determined to have been caused by a bomb, making the incident the first proven act of air sabotage in commercial aviation history.
Several unusual findings are uncovered by investigators after combing through the debris: the plane's toilet and baggage compartment have been smashed into fragments; shards of metal riddle the toilet doors inside but the outside has no metal fragments. The plane's tail section has been severed and is found mostly intact a mile away from the main wreckage.
Investigators conclude ". . . the tragedy resulted from an explosion somewhere in the region of the baggage compartment in the rear of the plane. Everything in front of the compartment was blown forward, everything behind blown backward, and things at the side outward." The report also notes, however, "The gasoline tanks, instead of being blown out, were crushed in, showing there was no explosion in them."
The report concludes the crashing of United Airlines' Boeing 247 is due to a bomb, with nitroglycerin as the probable explosive agent.
No one is ever charged with the bombing.
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