1997 August 03 - First Expedition

This looks to the southwest at Rich Mountain from Black Fork Mountain. It should give you an idea of what the terrain looks like in the area.

This looks to the south at Rich Mountain from Black Fork Mountain. It should give you an idea of what the terrain looks like in the area.

This looks to the southeast at Rich Mountain from Black Fork Mountain. It should give you an idea of what the terrain looks like in the area. The town of Mena is just to the east (left) of Rich.

Nose landing gear strut.

An overview of the crash site looking downslope (north). The fuselage crown is in the foreground and was the first major piece of wreckage that we saw as we approached the site from the top of the ridge.

One of the propeller assemblies. This should be the left-hand (#1) propeller.

There were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The damage to the prop blades occurred at impact.

Empennage, sans horizontal stabilizers. The vertical stabilizer now points downhill.

One thing that surprised me was finding evidence of someone bringing a gallon of paint and a roller to the site. It wasn't until many years after this visit that we learned that a distraught family member attempted to camouflage the wreckage to hide it from view.

Looking upslope along the debris field containing portions of the aft fuselage and empennage. The left engine (#1) is just out of view to the left.

The right-hand (#2) propeller is mingled in with wreckage from the forward part of the fuselage and cockpit area.

The #1 engine survived the impact relatively intact. On the #2 engine, only the section aft of the combustion cans is recognizable.

Vertical stabilizer and rudder.

Part of the left side aft fuselage with the registration number plainly visible.

#2 (RH) propeller.

Remains of a wing section.

Mark Alexander lends scale to the fuselage crown piece. This is the complete top of the aircraft from the area of the passenger entry door back to the dorsal fin (beginning of the vertical stabilizer). In the years since this photo was taken, humans have flipped the section over, so that the interior is now facing out.

RH nacelle and wing front spar. Evidence of the post-crash fire can be seen in this shot.

Forward part of the empennage. The racks which once held the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are visible at the top center. The carry-through spars for the stabilizers are evident.

Fuselage crown piece looking aft from the forward end.

Most of the crash site is characterized as a debris field with small parts. The larger portions seen here came from the wings.

This was one of the more complete passenger seat assemblies we found. The Convair would have had 20 sets, 10 along each side of the aircraft for a total passenger capacity of 40.