page_title: United Airlines Flight 521
hierarchical_section_title: United Airlines Flight 521
caption_attribution_description: English: McDonnel Douglas DC-4 Skymaster in the old colours of South African Airways exhibited at the ILA 2000 in Berlin
context_page_description: United Airlines Flight 521 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by a Douglas DC-4 from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Cleveland, Ohio. On May 29, 1947, while attempting to take off on runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only five of them survived.
  It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. Its record stood for less than 24 hours before an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard.
context_section_description: United Airlines Flight 521 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by a Douglas DC-4 from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Cleveland, Ohio. On May 29, 1947, while attempting to take off on runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only five of them survived.
  It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. Its record stood for less than 24 hours before an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard.
caption: A Douglas DC-4 similar to the accident aircraft
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 300D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:23 20:07:28", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "3072", "Image Tag 0x1002": "2048", "Image Rating": "0", "Image Tag 0x5012": "1", "Image ExifOffset": "244", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2396", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "1412", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:03:23 20:07:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:03:23 20:07:28", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "228255/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "162885/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "162885/32768", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "55", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/223", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "409600/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}