Charles Ward Cummings, Rear Admiral July 18, 1923 - September 11, 1974
Flight 212
How Eastern Flight 212 Changed Aviation in America
Overshadowed by the remembrances of the terrifying attacks on New York and Washington eight years ago, this past September 11 marked the 35th anniversary of one of the most notorious aviation disasters in American history.
Eastern Airlines Flight 212, a scheduled flight from Charleston, South Carolina, to Chicago, Illinois, was making its final approach to Douglas Municipal Airport in Charlotte. Seventy-eight passengers were on board the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 during what should have been a routine flight. The pilots of the aircraft - James Reeves, the captain, and James Daniels, the first officer - were fighting ground fog as they were guiding their ship toward Runway 36 at Douglas. They were also trying to keep an eye out for the fledgling Carowinds theme park, several miles south of the field, and an observation tower there that Eastern sponsored for many years. And somehow, they both managed to lose track of their altitude - they were 1,000 feet lower than they should have been.
Eastern Airlines Flight 212 crashed short of Douglas Airport. Seventy-two people, including Captain James Reeves, died. Also among the dead were Rear Admiral Charles Ward Cummings, the acting commandant of the now-defunct 6th Naval District, headquartered in Charleston, and his aide, Captain Felix Vecchione.
....The National Transportation Safety Board?s report on the accident, released in May of 1975, cited pilot error as the cause of Flight 212?s crash. Specifically, the NTSB cited Reeves and Daniels for engaging in unnecessary chatter during the approach, focusing on politics and used cars, as per information recovered from the cockpit voice recorder. The NTSB also noted that Reeves did not make the required altitude calls, compounding the problems with loss of attitude awareness.
As a result of the crash, James Daniels had his pilot?s license revoked - a penalty later reversed to a six-month suspension, according to William Stockton?s book on the subject, Final Approach: The Crash of Eastern 212. And the NTSB recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration that new rules and training be drafted to focus pilots on flying their aircraft, and not engaging in non-essential chatter, especially during low-altitude flight. In 1981, the FAA introduced the Sterile Cockpit Rule, requiring pilots to refrain from non-essential activities during critical phases of flight. That rule was in force 20 years later, ironically, when terrorists flew commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Today, Runway 36 is now known as Runway 36 Right - the shortest of three north-south runways at what is now Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The observation tower at Carowinds, which itself has changed hands a few times since 1974, is still there and in use. And Eastern Airlines, which at one time was headed by former astronaut Frank Borman, ceased operations in 1991 - but not before I made my own trip from Charlotte to Charleston, and back, on board one of their workhorse DC-9s, in 1984.
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