Sixty-five perish as airliner crashes into Medicine Bow Peak

60 years ago

Oct. 6 1955

Sixty-five aboard airliner perished this morning in crash on Medicine Bow peak

One of the worst disasters in aviation history occurred this morning about 7:00 o'clock, when a United Airlines New York to Los Angeles plane with 65 people aboard crashed on the east slope of Medicine Bow peak in the Snowy Range.

Local men who were part of a rescue party from the sheriff's office in Rawlins, said the big ship crashed into the face of the almost sheer rock cliff about a half mile north of Lake Marie, and about half way between the lake and the site of the former Marble Top lookout tower. The plane lacked only about 100 feet of clearing the top, the local men said, slid down the face of the mountain a short distance, and burned. There were no survivors.

The local men said National Guardsmen and other rescue crews were at the crash site, but due to the inaccessibility of the wreck, removal of bodies and other clean-up work could not be attempted until tomorrow.

Radio reports this afternoon said the plane carried 43 civilian passengers, several of them women; 19 service personnel, a stewardess, pilot, and co-pilot.

It is said heavy clouds obscured much of the Snowy Range this morning, and it is presumed that the poor visibility contributed to the pilot's failure to have enough altitude to clear the 12,000-ft. mountain. Search planes in the area later were seriously handicapped for several hours in being unable to approach the mountains closely in looking for the big plane.

 

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