Cases

1 case

• Continental Airlines Flight 11
  openUS

  At 8:35 p.m. on May 22, 1962, Continental Airlines Flight 11 — a Boeing 707 registered N70775 — departed O'Hare International Airport in Chicago for Kansas City, Missouri, carrying 37 passengers and 8 crew. At approximately 9:17 p.m., an explosion ripped through the right rear lavatory. The blast severed the aircraft's tail section, sending the rear fuselage and engines detaching from the main body. The aircraft pitched nose-down in uncontrolled gyrations and struck an alfalfa field near Unionville, Putnam County, Missouri, at approximately 9:22 p.m. All 45 people aboard were killed — 44 dead at the scene, one who survived briefly died of internal injuries at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Centerville, Iowa, about ninety minutes later. The perpetrator was Thomas G. Doty, a 34-year-old Kansas City man who had purchased more than $300,000 in life insurance — including policies bought at the airport just before boarding — to provide for his wife and five-year-old daughter. He brought six sticks of dynamite aboard in his briefcase, entered the lavatory, and ignited the device. The scheme was intended to appear as a genuine accident, with his family collecting the insurance payout. The crash was the first confirmed commercial aviation suicide bombing in U.S. history. The FBI investigation identified Doty as the bomber within days based on insurance records, passenger manifests, and the pattern of the explosion in the rear lavatory. The case reshaped commercial aviation security protocols around insurance verification and passenger screening. Captain Fred R. Gray, 50, was among the victims. The memorial installed in Unionville, Missouri in 2010 bears the inscription: "This Continental Flight 11 tragedy occurred in Putnam County on May 22, 1962, and changed America's air travel forever."

  0 verified · 0 unverified · 1 claims total