United Flight 553

Legend
CAM - Cockpit area microphone
RDO - Radio transmission from accident aircraft
-1 - Voice identified as Captain
-2 - Voice identified as First Officer
-3 - Voice identified as Second officer
-? - Unidentifiable voiceCHI APP = Chicago ApproachMTWR = Chicago-Midway Tower*
- Unintelligible word#
- Expletive deleted()
- Questionable text9VS = Aero Commander 690, N309VS pilot
all times are in GMT
20.25:25.0
CHI APC
Five five three, call the tower on one eighteen seven
20.25:28.0
RDO-2
Eighteen seven, five five three
20.25:35.5
RDO-2
Midway tower, United five five three, an' we'r out of three for two
20.25:39.0
MTWR
United five five three, report passing the outer marker, number two on the approach
20.25:41.0
CAM-3
Chicago, this is five five three (2nd officer calling ARINC)
20.25:44.0
RDO-2
Okay, report the outer marker
20.25:46.5
CAM-1
Let's have the gear down please
20.25:48.0
RDO-1
[Start of first sound of first series off Kedzie outer marker beacon tones]
20.25:50.97
CAM-3
Chicago, five five three (2nd officer calling ARINC)
20.25:51.62
CAM
[Sound of a click - sound similar to sound of landing gear handle going into down detent]

CAM
[Sound of chime - simultaneous with click above]
20.25:52.20
MTWR
Nine Victor Sugar, what's your airspeed?
20.25:54.5

[End sound of first series of Kedzie outer marker beacon tones]
20.25:54.74
9VS
Ah, we're down to ah, hundred twenty knots
20.25:55.06
CAM
[Increase in ambient noise level - similar to increase made by nose landing gear extended]
20.25:56.82
MTWR
Ah hundred and twenty, okay
20.26:00.64
CAM
[Sound of first of four clicks in rapid increase - sounds similar to flap lever moved from 15 degrees to 25 degrees position]
20.26:01.50
CAM-?
Gear 'own

CAM
[Sound of several clicks - similar to sound of stabilizer trim actuation]
20.26:10.02
RDO-1
[Sound of beginning of second series of Kedzie outer marker beacon tones]
20.26:20.02
RDO-1
[End of sound of second series of Kedzie outer marker beacon tones]
20.26:24.66
CAM-1
Final descent check
20.26:25.66
CAM-3
Flight and nav
20.26:27.11
CAM-2
Cross-checked

CAM-?
* * *

CAM
[Sound of clicks - similar to sound of stabilizer trim actuation]
20.26:30.62
RDO-2
United five five three, an, ah Kedzie inbound
20.26:35.97
CAM-?
Flight
20.26:36.38
MTWR
United five five three, continue inbound, you're number two on the approach --'ll keep you advised.
20.26:40.10
CAM
[Sound of several clicks - similar to sound of electrical stabilizer trim actuation]
20.26:40.47
RDO-2
Okay
20.26:40.96
CAM-2
Cross-checked

CAM-3
With a glideslope flag

CAM-2
No glideslope
20.26:41.10
9VS
Eh, nine VS has the runway
20.26:43.06
MTWR
Nine VS, runway three one left cleared to land
20.26:44.67
CAM-3
Aaan the --- landing gear
20.26:46.18
9VS
Okay
20.26:48.40
MTWR
Nine VS, do ya have the right runway in sight by any chance?
20.26:50.41
CAM-2
Down, three greens
20.26:51.37
CAM-3
Speed brake?
20.26:51.37
9VS
Affirmative
20.26:52.45
CAM-2
Ah --- armed
20.26:52.6
MTWR
'ud you swing over to that and land? There's a jet about two m-- and disregard that, ah, okay, I see ya now, you'r cleared to land on thirty-one left
20.26:54.69
CAM
[Sound of click - similar to sound made by moving speed brake lever to armed position]
20.26:56.04
CAM-3
Wing flaps
20.26:58.75
CAM
[Sound of click - similar to sound made by flap lever moving into detent]
20.26:59.42
CAM-2
Thirty, green light, pressure fluid.
20.27:01.48
CAM-3
An the auto-pilot?

CAM
[Sound of click - similar to electrical stabilizer trim actuation]
20.27:02.96
CAM-2
Disarmed
20.27:04.11
CAM-2
Ah thousand feet
20.27:04.50
MTWR
United five fifty-three, execute a missed approach, make a left turn to a heading of --- one eight zero, climb to two thousand [between words 'of' and 'one' there is a pause and a voice in the background says 'one eighty']
20.27:05.74
CAM
[Sound of stickshaker begins and continues to end of recording]
20.27:07.56
CAM-?
[Two to three hurried word at very low amplitude and masked by noise of stickshaker]

CAM
[Sound of click - similar to sound made by flap lever moving into detent]
20.27:12.14
RDO-2
Okay, left turn to one eight zero, --- left turn okay?
20.27:13.88
CAM-3
Want more flaps?
20.27:15.33
CAM-?
Flaps fifteen.
20.27:15.45
MTWR
Yeah, make left turn to one eighty.
20.27:16.14
CAM-?
I'm sorry.
20.27:16.47
CAM
[Sound of click - similar to sound made by flap lever moving into detent]
20.27:19.4
CAM
[Sound of click - similar to sound made by landing gear lever moved out of detent]
20.27:20.14
CAM
[Sound of double click - similar to sound made by landing gear lever moved into up detent]
20.27:10.64
CAM
[Sound of landing gear warning horn begins and continues to end of recording]
20.27:23.55
CAM
[Sound of initial impact and garbled voice]
20.27:24.46
RDO-1
[Sounds of impact and unintelligible voice]
20.27:25.02
RDO-1
end of recording.
Narrative:The aircraft, named "City of Lincoln", took off from Washington-National Airport for flight UA553 to Chicago and Omaha. Departure time was 12:50 CST. Chicago ARTCC cleared the crew to descend to 4000 feet and the flight was given vectors for a Midway Airport Runway 31L localizer course. At 14:19 the flight was transferred to Chicago Approach Control which later requested UA553 to slow down to 180 knots and later down to 160 knots. After issuing a descent clearance down to 2000 feet at 14:23 the controller requested the flight to slow down to approach speed because of separation between UA553 and a preceding Aero Commander. At 14:24 the Aero Commander passed the Outer Marker and was cleared to land on Runway 31L. Two minutes later UA553 passed the Outer Marker inbound. Then, at 14:27:04 the air traffic controller decided to issue a missed approach clearance: "United 553 execute a missed approach make a left turn to a heading of 180 climb to 2000". At the same time, having just reached 1000 feet, the stick shaker suddenly activated. Full power was applied and the gear was retracted in an attempt to execute a missed approach. The Boeing continued to descend however, attaining a high nose up attitude (of at least 30deg, according to some survivors). The aircraft then clipped a tree and impacted trees, houses, utility pole cables and garages before coming to rest. Post crash fire destroyed part of the fuselage. PROBABLE CAUSE: "The captain's failure to exercise positive flight management during the execution of a non-precision approach, which culminated in a critical deterioration of airspeed into the stall regime where level flight could no longer be maintained."

Flight 553

Chicagoan Lawrence O'Connor, who had used United Airlines Flight
553 or its equivalent to fly from Washington to Chicago on Friday
nights for years was warned by a White House source not to take
this flight; among those killed in the crash at Midway Airport,
Chicago, were: Dorothy Hunt who was carrying $50,000 in Watergate
payoff money and close to $2 million she was attempting to place
in foreign banks; Michele Clark, CBS newswoman who was to
interview Mrs. Hunt on a story that could allegedly destroy Nixon;
at least four people alleged to have knowledge of a large labor
union "donation" to the Committee to ReElect the President
(CREEP), paid to stop the indictment of a Chicago labor hoodlum;
and a group of gas pipeline lobbyists, attorneys and gas company
officials (Robert Moreau, Nancy Parker, Ralph Blodgett, James
Drueger, Lon Bayer, Wilbur Erickson) who had allegedly gathered
evidence against former Attorney General John Mitchell in an anti-
trust case involving El Paso Natural Gas Co.; also aboard was a
"hit-man" using the cover of Harold Metcalf, of Drug Abuse Law
Enforcement, who told the pilot, Captain Whitehouse, he was
carrying a gun and was assigned a jump seat near the food galley
and rear door; Captain Whitehouse and six of the Watergate-related
passengers were found to have unexplainably high cyanide content
after the crash, though the other 35 passengers killed did not;
following the crash hit-man Metcalf, in a jump suit, walked out
the cracked open fuselage; up to 200 FBI and CIA agents allegedly
took over the crash site immediately, beating the fire department
to the scene, refusing to allow in a medical team, confiscating
Control Tower tapes, interviewing survivors and witnesses before
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators had a
chance to; CBS News requested immediate cremation of Michele
Clark's body; evidence of sabotage includes possible tampering
with altimeter and air data computer, malfunctioning of the runway
visual range recorder and the Kedzie localizer which acted as the
runway's outer marker, a series of misdirections from air traffic
controllers and the failure of Flight 553's standby power system;
an in-flight robbery gang known as the Joseph Sarelli mob
allegedly came into possession of some of the Hunt money and
Mitchell documents soon after the crash and reportedly fenced it
for $5 million; the day after the crash Nixon aide Egil Krogh,
Jr., of Ellsberg burglary fame, appointed Undersecretary of
Transportation and placed in charge of the two agencies
investigating the crash (NTSB and FAA); ten days later Nixon
assistant Alexander Butterfield, a CIA-aviation liaison, appointed
head of Federal Aviation Administration; a few weeks later Nixon
aide Dwight Chapin becomes top executive with United Airlines.
1973 -- Assassinations of US diplomats Cleo A. Nobel, Jr., and
George C. Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid by Palestinian
guerrillas in Khartoum; Richard Sharples of Bermuda, Mohammad
Ali Osman of Yemen, Salvador Allende Gossens of Chile, Luis
Carrero Blanco of Spain and Dr. Marcus Foster in Oakland,
California; assassination of an American Army officer by
insurgent group in Iran. Senator Stennis shot in Washington,
D.C. Bilderberger meeting in Saltsjobaden, Sweden. Trilateral
Commission founded under the direction of David Rockefeller,
with Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale among the founding members.
Agnew resigns. Sidney Gottlieb, head of CIA's LSD and other drug
programs, destroys records to hide details of program. Kissinger
and his deputy General Scowcroft order a series of CIA spying
operations in Micronesia. Hunt beaten in his cell before
testifying about the Bremer connection. Durham becomes FBI
agent, infiltrates American Indian Movement (AIM), becomes chief
of security. Liberation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, by AIM.
Blue Dove becomes an FBI agent. DeFreeze escapes from Soledad;
Wheeler escapes from Vacaville. "Race war" in Bay area
culminates in the killing of Dr. Foster which the SLA claims
credit for in its first communique. Experiments with implanting
electrodes in the brain carried out at Vacaville and elsewhere.
Behavior mod unit started at El Reno, Oklahoma, prison; START-
type program introduced to Maryland public schools by Behavior
Research Institute. Sixth UFO flap year.

Flight 553 Revisited

Alex Botto, Jr., who had infiltrated the Joseph Sarelli air piracy
gang for the Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts (CCCUC),
seized by federal marshals, taken to the federal prison hospital
at Springfield, Missouri, and held for 40 days without hearing or
trial; Botto and another CCCUC agent, Joseph Zale, testified to
seeing evidence from the sabotaged United Airlines Flight 553 in
the Sarelli mob's possessions and turned over evidence on this and
an earlier crash robbery to Nixon's Strike Force in Chicago; just
before the reopening of the case Zale was indicted in an alleged
frameup by federal agencies; CCCUC chairman Sherman Skolnich
revealed at the 553 hearings that his group had stolen the entire
government file, 1300 pages of documentation, and was presenting
it as evidence of foul play in the Midway Airport crash.