On December 1, 1974, TWA Flight 514 crashed into Mount Weather while on approach to Dulles.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I meant to post this a few days ago.

TWA Flight 514



N54328, the aircraft involved in the accident

Accident
Date: December 1, 1974; 11:09:22 am EST
Summary: Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) due to pilot error and ATC error
Site: Mount Weather, Clarke County, Virginia, U.S.
Coordinates: 39°04.6?N 77°52.9?W

Aircraft
Aircraft type: Boeing 727-231
Operator: Trans World Airlines
Registration: N54328
Flight origin: Indianapolis International Airport, Indianapolis, Indiana
Stopover: Port Columbus International Airport, Columbus, Ohio
Destination: Washington Dulles International Airport, diverted from Washington National Airport
Occupants: 92
Passengers: 85
Crew: 7
Fatalities: 92
Survivors: 0

Trans World Airlines Flight 514, registration N54328, was a Boeing 727-231 en route from Indianapolis, Indiana and Columbus, Ohio to Washington Dulles International that crashed into Mount Weather, Virginia, on Sunday, December 1, 1974. All 92 aboard, 85 passengers and seven crew members, were killed. In stormy conditions late in the morning, the aircraft was in controlled flight and impacted a low mountain 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) northwest of its revised destination.

{snip}

The flight was scheduled for Washington National Airport, but was diverted to Dulles when high crosswinds, east at 28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h) and gusting to 49 knots (56 mph; 91 km/h), prevented safe operations on the main north–south runway at Washington National. The flight was being vectored for a non-precision instrument approach to runway 12 at Dulles. Air traffic controllers cleared the flight down to 7,000 feet (2,130 m) before clearing them for the approach while not on a published segment.

The jetliner began a descent to 1,800 feet (550 m), shown on the first checkpoint for the published approach. The cockpit voice recorder later indicated there was some confusion in the cockpit over whether they were still under a radar-controlled approach segment which would allow them to descend safely. After reaching 1,800 feet (550 m) there were some 100-to-200-foot (30 to 60 m) altitude deviations which the flight crew discussed as encountering heavy downdrafts and reduced visibility in snow.

The plane impacted the west slope of Mount Weather at 1,670 feet (510 m) above sea level at approximately 230 knots (265 mph; 425 km/h). The wreckage was contained within an area about 900 by 200 feet (275 by 60 m). The evidence of first impact were trees sheared off about 70 feet (20 m) above the ground; the elevation at the base of the trees was 1,650 feet (505 m).

The wreckage path was oriented along a line 118 degrees magnetic. Calculations indicated that the left wing went down about six degrees as the aircraft passed through the trees and the aircraft was descending at an angle of about one degree. After about 500 feet (150 m) of travel through the trees, it struck a rock outcropping at an elevation of about 1,675 feet (510 m). Numerous heavy components of the aircraft were thrown forward of the outcropping, and numerous intense post-impact fires broke out which were later extinguished. The mountain's summit is at 1,754 feet (535 m) above sea level.

{snip}

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Raven Rock and Mount Weather:

Thu Apr 16, 2020: Finally, they'll get to use Raven Rock and Mount Weather.

Raven Rock Mountain Complex



The Site R tunnel entrance with abutments (39.729642°N 77.432468°W, white figure in illustration) now has a building that is visible from a public road intersection to the west, particularly when trees are bare. The tunnel's other (east) opening is near the military installation's above-ground support area near the Route 16 intersection with Jacks Mountain Road.

Coordinates: 39°44?02?N 077°25?10?W (mountain summit)

See also:
1959 High Point bunker
Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center
1959 Greenbrier nuclear bunker
Project Greek Island

The Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known as Site R, is a U.S. military installation with an underground nuclear bunker near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, at Raven Rock Mountain that has been called an "underground Pentagon". The bunker has emergency operations centers for the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and United States Marine Corps. Along with Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, it formed the core bunker complexes for the US Continuity of Government plan during the Cold War to survive a nuclear attack.

Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center

State Route 601, Loudoun–Clarke counties, near Bluemont, Virginia



Mount Weather, with the Shenandoah Valley in the background

The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a civilian command facility in the U.S. state of Virginia, used as the center of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Also known as the High Point Special Facility (HPSF), its preferred designation since 1991 is "SF."

The facility is a major relocation site for the highest level of civilian and military officials in case of national disaster, playing a major role in continuity of government (per the U.S. Continuity of Operations Plan).

Mount Weather is the location of a control station for the FEMA National Radio System (FNARS), a high frequency radio system connecting most federal public safety agencies and the U.S. military with most of the states. FNARS allows the president to access the Emergency Alert System.

The site was brought into the public eye by The Washington Post, when the government facility was mentioned while reporting on the December 1, 1974, crash into Mount Weather of TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727 jetliner.

[bpj62]

2. I remember that day

I was 12 years old and I wS a paperboy for the Washington Star. It was a cold wet Sunday morning and you had to be careful to keep the paper dry and to put it inside the customers storm doors instead of just tossing it on the porch. It was very windy and at one house a branch broke off a tree and landed right in front of me. Had it hit me I would have been badly injured. I remember watching cartoons later that morning and the local news broke in to say that there had been a plane crash on Loudoun County and that the plane was trying to land at Dulles. At the time it was the worst airline crash in American history.
On a side note that area was very rural back then. State Route 7 was the was and is the main highway through that area. All the locals knew about the government facility but locally in the DC area most people didn't know it existed until that day. Now you have two farm breweries onbthe mountainside as well as a portion of the Appalachian Trail. There is also a memorial marker to the victims of the crash.