- ACCIDENT DETAILS
Date: October 29, 1953
Time: 0844
Location: Near Half Moon Bay, California
Operator: British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines
Flight #: 304/44
Route: Sydney - Honolulu - San Francisco
AC Type: Douglas DC-6
Registration: VH-BPE
cn / ln: 43125/131
Aboard: 19   (passengers:11  crew:8)
Fatalities: 19   (passengers:11  crew:8)
Ground: 0
Summary: While flying in fog on an approach to San Francisco International Airport, the aircraft crashed into a redwood forest on a mountain ridge, 7.5 miles southeast of Half Moon Bay. The plane struck the ridge of King's Mountain and broke up, scattering wreckage over a half-mile area. Failure of the crew to follow prescribed procedures for an instrument approach. American pianist, William Kapell, 31, killed.
Sources

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