Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, October 25, 1960

From Los Angeles to New York, American Airlines named as Boeing 707-123 N7508A was operated with a scheduled stop at the field of Dallas.

The Boeing 707 was carrying 118 passengers and eight crew members under the command of the Captain named Howard Morton. When the flight reached into the Dallas Love Field, the Captain didn’t get the landing front nose gear to lock into position properly for landing. Thus, according to Captain Morton, this situation has made Love Field “socked in” and also this made the aircraft to run low on fuel.

To check for better conditions, the first plan was to visit Fort Worth’s Carter Field. As the aircraft circled the Carter Field overhead, several attempts has taken to find the cloud cover.

About an hour has been passed from the initial approach to Dallas Love Field, Captain Morton send a message by radio. The message was “We are not going to play around here; I wish we shall leave with the landing”. The nearby Air Force of Carswell has replied in this situation that they could help. The Carswell’s runway has formed in case if the gears of Boeing 707 failed. To wait for the crippled jetliner, the emergency vehicles have lined the runway.

The source of the movie clip American Airlines Boeing 707 1960 is not known. But, in the film you can see that the two fly-pasts have done by the aircraft over the runway of Carswell for the Captain. This has been to familiarize himself with the layout of unfamiliar airport. The aircraft 707has smoothly touched down with the Captain Morton. While coming down, the aircraft hold the nose up for as long as it can. Moreover, the aircraft successfully kept by Captain Morton with rolling down on its main gear at the centre of the runway.

When the nose finally came down amidst a fury of dust and sparks, the aircraft continued to skid down the centre of the runway a distance of about 800 feet before coming to a final rest.

The fuel tanks of 707 were about to dry. The time left for the flying tanks was only seventeen minutes. There happened a small fire broke out caused in the nose or electronics bay. The aircraft was about to stop. The crew of the emergency services have quickly extinguished the fire broke.

There was no injury found to the passengers or crew. The shaken passengers then bused over to nearby love field. Furthermore, the onward journey to New York, then completed by another aircraft. The Boeing 707 has repaired and returned to the American Airlines. On April 5, 1977, again an in-flight loss of an engine has occurred with the same aircraft. However, no injuries has found and the aircraft worked out properly again.

Sources

We decided to run an unlabeled small roll of cine American Airlines Boeing 707 1960 film with 16mm on the projector within Air Canada archive.  So, the above movie American Airlines Boeing 707 1960 has fulfilled our demands. Furthermore, the film source has completely unknown. But, we still feel happy sharing it with you.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, October 26, 1960
The Odessa American, October 26, 1960
The Salt Lake Tribune, October 26, 1960
Delaware County Daily Times, October 26, 1960
History of the Boeing 707, K. Hurturk, 1999
With special thanks to Jon Proctor

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