Airplane pilots are always quick to tell you that 99 percent of all aviation accidents are due to pilot error. This is almost a religious incantation with them–they believe firmly in ‘trusting the machine’, which I imagine is the only way to get over the insane fact that they’re up in the air flying around in a metal box. Perhaps they’re right. It certainly appears that pilot error was the cause of the crash we’re about to learn the history of. It involves Howard Hughes, of course, and was as spectacular an event as aviation had ever seen–though not for reasons that one would hope for.

On Sunday, July 6, 1946, Hughes decided to do a test flight of his new reconnaissance aircraft, the FX-11. It was the bird’s maiden voyage, though it appears to have been done under the radar (so to speak), with no official permissions, flight plans, etc. Hughes did not follow the agreed testing protocol, which called for a 45-minute flight with the landing gear extended. He ordered the loading of 1,200 gallons of fuel rather than the 600 prescribed by the USAAF, hinting at a surreptitious plan to prolong the flight. Hydraulic fluid for the right-hand propeller had to be refilled repeatedly after preflight engine tests, but since all systems seemed to be working properly and no leak was observed, Hughes decided to proceed. On takeoff, Hughes retracted the landing gear, violating USAAF protocol. Cockpit lights indicated that the gear did not retract properly, apparently distracting Hughes, who repeatedly lowered and raised the gear and requested that another aircraft be flown alongside to observe its operation. Glenn Oderkirk and company test pilot Gene Blandford flew an A-20 Havoc next to the XF-11 as Hughes again lowered and raised the gear. The pair were unable to communicate directly with Hughes due to confusion about radio frequencies, but they had observed nothing amiss, so they returned to the airfield. Hughes continued flying the XF-11 in broad circles above Culver City.

An hour and fifteen minutes into the flight, after onboard recording cameras had run out of film, a leak caused the right-hand propeller controls to lose their effectiveness and the rear propeller subsequently reversed its pitch, disrupting that engine’s thrust and causing the aircraft to yaw hard to the right and begin descending steeply. Hughes was about 2 miles from the factory airfield at an altitude of about 5,000 feet at the time, but he decided to fly away and troubleshoot the problem rather than returning to land, later saying he believed that some unseen part of the right-hand wing or landing gear had broken open and was causing severe aerodynamic drag. Hughes lowered and raised the landing gear again, made various adjustments, and made several power adjustments to both engines, ultimately leaving the right-hand engine at full power and reducing power to the left-hand engine. The aircraft continued to descend and Hughes considered bailing out (imagine?), but realized he was too low to do so safely. He initiated a forced landing on the golf course of the Los Angeles Country Club but about 300 yards short of the course, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude and clipped three houses in Beverly Hills. The third house and the aircraft were both destroyed by impact and fire; Hughes was nearly killed.

As a result of his burns and other injuries, Hughes became addicted to various drugs given to him during his recovery and this led to Hughes becoming the strange figure that most of us knew about while growing up;. the man never seen in public, who lived in hotel rooms with the drapes drawn, and was rumored to lie on beds of kleenexes naked, shooting up drugs and communicating to the world through the Mormon spokespeople who surrounded him. Above is Martin Scorcese’s spectacular recreation of the crash in ‘The Aviator. Below it is a newsreel from the summer of ’46 showing the aftermath of the devastating crash. Enjoy, I guess.