
March 1957 to January 1960
Capital Airlines (USA)
N7462 - c/n 217 - a V.745D series Viscount
United States registered
December 1954
Order for an additional 20 V.745D aircraft was placed by Capital Airlines.
This was the 57th Viscount ordered by Capital Airlines.
Production Order No. F57/745. Sales Order No. F57/68B. Stock Order No. F70/27B.
2 February 1957
First flight from Hurn Airport, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England.
2 March 1957
Delivered to Capital Airlines with fleet number '380' fitted with integral front 'airsteps'.
circa 1958
Large registrations on the rear fuselage appeared after the use of small registrations on the tail were banned by the newly formed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Also by this time weather radar had been fitted resulting in a change to the nose cone.
18 January 1960
Crashed at Holdcroft near Charles City, Virginia, USA at 22:19 Eastern Standard Time (EST) after taking off from Richmond, Virginia, USA.
The aircraft was on a service from Washington National Airport, District of Columbia, USA to Norfolk, Virginia, USA. At an altitude of 8,000 feet the aircraft entered icing conditions and two of the engines failed and auto-feathered the propellers. The flight crew managed to restart the No.4 (starboard outer) engine but after applying full power the aircraft entered a circling anti-clockwise descent. While descending to a lower altitude, the other two operating engines also failed and the propellers auto-feathered. The crew tried to restart the engines and put the aircraft into a dive to try to get the propellers out of the feathered position as they were not able to unfeather them normally using the electrically driven feathering oil pump. This attempt failed and the aircraft entered a flat spin and crashed into trees with almost no forward momentum.
The accident was attributed to the delay in switching on the engine and propeller electrical anti-ice systems while flying in icy conditions, resulting in the loss of engine power and sufficient electrical energy required to unfeather the propellers and to relight enough engines to maintain flight.
All 46 passengers and 4 crew on board were sadly killed.
Capital Airlines subsequently changed the emergency checklist by deleting the phrase 'descend to a warmer climate before attempting to restart a failed engine' and instructed flight crews that engine restarts could be accomplished at any height, providing that the correct procedures were followed.
Total time 9,247 hours and 7,200 total landings.
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