The Midair Crash of a TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC7 Grand Canyon, Arizona June 30, 1956

Two giant commercial airplanes collided above the Grand Canyon on the morning of June 30, 1956. Both planes had taken off from a Los Angeles airport approximately three minutes apart from one another. The crash brought calls for increased airline regulations and the FAA was created in the aftermath of the disaster. Yet four years later a similar crash occurred above New York City. Ironically the airlines involved were TWA and United Airlines, the same companies that produced the planes that came together over the Grand Canyon. The 1956 accident brought to light that the two aircraft had been outside U.S. airlines regulations when they passed over the Grand Canyon.