Tragedy Remembered

On June 30, 1956, a United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA Super Constellation maneuvered around towering cumulus clouds on a partly clear day and collided at an altitude of 21,000 feet above Temple and Chuar buttes, killing all 128 passengers and crew. The passengers included prominent business people and families, and every passenger had loved ones waiting for them. The Grand Canyon disaster rocked the aviation world and was the deadliest crash in American commercial aviation history at the time. Within a few years, the United States Congress created the Federal Aviation Administration to increase air safety. Because of its importance in aviation history, this hallowed ground is a National Historic Landmark that protects artifacts remaining in this remote area of the canyon and provides learning opportunities about the events of that day and beyond. Grand Canyon's Pioneer Cemetery is the final resting place for 29 unidentified passengers from United Airlines. Recovery personnel removed the remains of 70 accident victims from the TWA flight, and all but three were interred in a mass grave at Flagstaff Citizens Cemetery. Twenty-nine identified passengers were returned home for burial.

Arizona · United States