page_title: Allegheny Airlines Flight 371
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: English: Public hearing on crash held at the Genetti hotel.
context_page_description: Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 was a scheduled passenger flight on December 1, 1959, between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio with stops in Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, Williamsport, Bradford, and Erie.
  The Martin 2-0-2 operating the flight departed Harrisburg with 26 passengers and crew on board and crashed while maneuvering to land at Williamsport Regional Airport in poor weather. A passenger was the lone survivor. Of the 26 passengers and crew many came from Pennsylvania or other Mid-Atlantic states, however there were two foreign nationals on board: one from France and the other from Lithuania.
  The crash was the first fatal accident in the history of Allegheny Airlines and was the deadliest until the 1969 crash of Allegheny Airlines Flight 853. Also the crash was the largest aviation incident in county history, and was the only deadly incident involving Williamsport Regional Airport until the Merion air disaster in 1991.
context_section_description: Aviation crash investigators were called immediately following the crash and arrived on the crash site the following day. The Civil Aeronautics Board opened an investigation on December 2, 1959. Possible causes for the crash released in a pre-investigation interview were that of pilot error, inclement weather conditions, cockpit instrumental or mechanical failure. 
  On November 8, 1960 the board released its findings saying: "The Board believes that this accident was caused by the captain's failure to execute a timely abandoned approach. The probable accidental caging of the fluxgate compass, which would have resulted in an erroneous heading indication, is considered to be a likely contributing factor."
  As a result of the crash from 1961 onward the Federal Aviation Administration required all commercial aircraft to adopt suitable guards on all aircraft that have fluxgate compass caging switches located in a position which would permit inadvertent actuation.
caption: Public hearing pertaining to the crash being held at the Genetti Hotel in January 1960
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