United Airlines Flight 409 Crash 1955

Flight 409’s Fatal Collision with Medicine Bow Peak

On October 6, 1955, United Airlines Flight 409 left Denver 83 minutes late.

The DC-4 carried a mix of lives: Mormon Choir members, young Air Force recruits, and two babies among its 66 souls.

Captain Cooke had flown this route many times before. Yet something went wrong. Search planes found black stains on Medicine Bow Peak at 11:40 that morning.

The plane had hit just 25 feet below the summit in a fierce snowstorm. For five days, over 125 volunteers braved steep cliffs to bring bodies down using ropes and horses.

The crash site in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest still holds pieces of this story, with a bronze plaque at Miners Cabin Turnout facing the mountain where so many lives ended too soon.

A Late Start for Flight 409

Flight 409 landed at Denver’s Stapleton Airport at 5:51 a.m. on October 6, 1955, already 83 minutes behind on its New York to San Francisco trip.

Ground crews quickly refueled the Douglas DC-4 before sunrise and rushed through maintenance checks.

Baggage handlers accidentally loaded 100 extra pounds in the back.

Captain Clinton C. Cooke Jr., who knew this route well, took control with First Officer Ralph D.Salisbury Jr. and flight attendant Patricia Shuttleworth.

Mormon Singers and Military Newcomers Filled the Seats

Eleven more travelers got on in Denver, bringing the total to 63 passengers plus three crew members.

Five women from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir were heading home after singing across Europe. Seventeen Air Force recruits between 17 and 21 years old were flying to start basic training in California.

Other passengers included a soldier coming back to meet his wife and baby, military officers, two babies, and doctors returning from a Chicago meeting.

Weather Got Worse as the Plane Took Off

Captain Cooke lifted off at 6:33 a.m., heading for Salt Lake City with a planned flight time of 2 hours and 33 minutes.

Weather reports showed clouds over Medicine Bow Peak, light snow, and strong winds up to 40 knots that could jump to 60 knots near the mountain.

Controllers told the plane to follow normal airways around the Snowy Range at 10,000 feet, staying far north of Laramie to avoid mountains.

The flight needed to call in when it passed Rock River, Wyoming, at 8:11 a.m.

Missing Radio Check-in Set Off Alarms

Flight 409 never called in at the 8:11 a.m. Rock River checkpoint, 40 miles north of Laramie.

Officials called the Wyoming Air National Guard to start searching for the overdue flight. Air traffic controllers tried many times to reach the United crew but got no answer.

They quickly told the Civil Aeronautics Authority about the missing plane. With no radar coverage in 1955, finding a missing plane meant looking with your eyes.

Guard Pilots Thought the Plane Cut Corners

Wyoming Air National Guard sent up two search planes: Mel Conine in a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star and Ed Weed in a single-seat F-80 Shooting Star.

The pilots guessed Flight 409 might have tried to save time with a shortcut since it was running late, so they headed straight for the highest mountains.

After checking Elk Mountain with no luck, they turned toward Medicine Bow Peak, which stands 12,013 feet tall. Snow, wind, and poor visibility made the search hard.

Black Marks on the Mountain Showed Where the Plane Hit

At 11:40 a.m., Mel Conine and his partner spotted black stains and scattered parts on Medicine Bow Peak.

The DC-4 had hit the mountain at about 11,570 feet, just 25 feet from the top. Clocks in the wreckage later showed the crash happened at 7:26 a.m.

Two huge black burn marks scarred the granite cliff where the plane blew up on impact, leaving a mile-long trail of debris.

The wind was too rough for the search planes to get closer, so they flew back to report what they found.

Rescue Teams Found Bodies Down the Mountainside

Local police, newspaper reporters, and rescue teams reached the crash site by early afternoon.

They found about 50 bodies spread along a 300-foot path down the steep mountain face, with plane pieces scattered across dangerous ground.

They only saw the tail section, part of the body, and one wing.

The front of the plane seemed to have fallen down the other side of the peak. Snow and strong winds made rescue work very risky.

Ropes and Pulleys Helped Bring Down Victims

More than 125 volunteers came to help, including expert climbers from nearby rescue groups and universities.

Alpine rescue teams set up rope and pulley systems to secure bodies in bags and lower them from the cliff.

Wyoming National Guard members, local ranchers with horses, and town volunteers joined the dangerous mission.

They set up a base camp and used pack animals to carry body bags about six miles to the University of Wyoming Science Camp, which became a temporary morgue.

Tough Mountain Conditions Made Recovery Take Five Days

Getting all the remains took five full days, ending on October 11, 1955. The steep cliffs and bad weather made the job extremely hard.

Crash investigators couldn’t even safely visit the cliff where the DC-4 first hit because they weren’t trained climbers.

Small private planes kept flying around to look at the crash, creating more safety problems. A train that jumped its tracks near Laramie made moving the bodies harder, causing more delays.

No One Ever Found Why the Plane Flew the Wrong Way

Investigators released their report on March 22, 1957, saying the plane had no mechanical problems and all engines worked when it crashed.

Evidence showed the plane pointed upward with unusually slow speed, suggesting the crew tried to climb when they hit the mountain.

The final report simply stated “pilot changed course for unknown reasons.”

They thought about several possibilities: broken altitude gauges, clouds hiding the mountain, or strong downdrafts pushing the plane into the peak.

Artillery Fire Cleared Dangerous Wreckage from the Cliffs

After removing all identifiable remains and investigation materials, the Wyoming National Guard used recoilless rifles and artillery to blow up the wreckage stuck in rock crevices.

Large pieces of the tail that had been tied with ropes high on the cliff were blasted loose to keep them from falling and hurting future climbers.

Despite this cleanup, pieces of Flight 409 still lie scattered across the mountainside today, buried under rocks and snow.

In 2001, workers placed a bronze memorial plaque at the Miner’s Camp turnout on Wyoming Highway 130, honoring “the 66 passengers and crew that perished on Medicine Bow Peak October 6, 1955.”

Visiting Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest

You can visit the Flight 409 memorial plaque at the Miners Cabin turnout on Wyoming Highway 130 between Centennial and Saratoga.

The road closes mid-November through Memorial Day weekend each year.

There’s no entrance fee for the national forest. The actual crash site wreckage on Medicine Bow Peak is federally protected, so you can’t remove anything.

For more Flight 409 history, check out the archive collection at University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center in Laramie.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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