page_title: United Airlines Flight 736
hierarchical_section_title: United Airlines Flight 736
caption_attribution_description: English: Some of the debris collected from United Airlines Flight 736, a DC-7 which crashed on April 21, 1958 southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.
context_page_description: United Airlines Flight 736 was a daily transcontinental passenger flight in the United States operated by United Airlines. On April 21, 1958, the Douglas DC-7 serving the flight crashed in southern Nevada following a mid-air collision. The aircraft assigned to Flight 736, an airliner with 47 aboard, was flying at cruise altitude above Clark County, en route to a stopover at Denver, Colorado, when it was struck by a United States Air Force fighter jet crewed by two pilots. The collision occurred at 8:30 a.m. in clear weather within a major commercial airway; both aircraft fell out of control from 21,000 feet and crashed into unpopulated desert terrain southwest of Las Vegas.
  There were no survivors from either aircraft, and with 49 fatalities it remains the deadliest crash in the history of the Las Vegas Valley. Among the victims were a group of military personnel and civilian contractors involved with sensitive Department of Defense weapons systems. The loss of the group triggered new rules prohibiting similar groups engaged in critical projects from flying aboard the same aircraft.
context_section_description: United Airlines Flight 736 was a daily transcontinental passenger flight in the United States operated by United Airlines.  On April 21, 1958, the Douglas DC-7 serving the flight crashed in southern Nevada following a mid-air collision. The aircraft assigned to Flight 736, an airliner with 47 aboard (42 passengers, 5 crew), was flying at cruise altitude above Clark County, en route to a stopover at Denver, Colorado, when it was struck by a United States Air Force fighter jet crewed by two pilots.  The collision occurred at 8:30 a.m. in clear weather within a major commercial airway; both aircraft fell out of control from 21,000 feet (6,400 m) and crashed into unpopulated desert terrain southwest of Las Vegas.
  There were no survivors from either aircraft, and with 49 fatalities it remains the deadliest crash in the history of the Las Vegas Valley.  Among the victims were a group of military personnel and civilian contractors involved with sensitive Department of Defense weapons systems.  The loss of the group triggered new rules prohibiting similar groups engaged in critical projects from flying aboard the same aircraft.
  The official investigation stated that cockpit visibility limitations played a role in the accident, but also faulted military and civilian aviation authorities for not taking measures to reduce well known collision risks that had existed for over a year within the confines of airways, despite numerous complaints from airline crews. The loss of Flight 736, one of a series of 1950s mid-air collisions in American skies, helped usher-in widespread improvements in air traffic control within the United States.
caption: Some of the Douglas DC-7 aircraft wreckage collected for the crash investigation.
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