The Crash of a Standard Airlines C-46E Burbank, California July 11, 1949

The Standard Airliner that crashed on approach to Burbank, California on July 11, 1949 was an unscheduled New York to California flight. The Curtiss Wright C-46 crashed after beginning its descent into a cloud bank. A subsequent hearing held by the Civil Aeronautics Board considered pilot error as well as other factors. Among the oddities associated with this doomed flight was a fistfight between two passengers. This fracas occurred somewhere between 40 and 90 minutes before the crash. At least one surviving passenger remembered co-pilot Harold Tucker being knocked into the flight controls by one of the combatants.