A monument to the 66 people killed in 1955 when a Salt Lake -bound airliner crashed into a Wyoming mountainside has been unveiled by a group of historians and descendants of victims.
United Airlines Flight 409 hit Medicine Bow Peak 40 miles west of Laramie, on Oct. 6, 1955, killing everyone on board. Among the victims were 21 Utah residents, some of whom were Mormon Tabernacle Choir members returning home from a European tour.
In 1997, a small group of Wyoming residents and relatives of victims began raising money and seeking permission from the Forest Service to place a bronze and granite marker near the site along Wyoming Highway 130.
The marker, which reads, "In memory of the 66 passengers and crew that perished on Medicine Bow Peak October 6, 1955," was dedicated Saturday at the Miner's Cabin Turnout just below the cliff where the plane crashed.
Historian Mel Duncan of Cheyenne said the effort to erect the marker was complicated by the elevation and remoteness of the site.
"The area of the crash debris is covered by snow for a major portion of the year," said Duncan, a retired military and private pilot whose lectures and 1996 booklet on the crash led to a museum exhibit and then the plan for a monument.
Less than a year after the Flight 409 crash, a Venezuelan airliner crashed off the New Jersey coast, killing all 74 people aboard and 10 days after that, two commercial airliners collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people.
"This series of accidents was the impetus that drove Congress to appropriate money to update the air control system, adding radar and procedures to promote flying safety," Duncan said.
Flight 409 crashed nose-first into the 12,000-foot-high cliff during fair weather and daylight.
The flight originated in New York City, was delayed by weather in Chicago and left Denver for Salt Lake City nearly 90 minutes behind schedule.
One theory was that the flight crew had been overcome by fumes from a faulty cockpit combustion heater. Investigators also speculated that the pilot of the unpressurized DC-4 may have been attempting a shortcut through the mountains to make up for the lost time.
Duncan said some retired United pilots have told him the shortcut over the peak between Denver and Salt Lake City was routine.
Following the investigation, United Airlines asked the Colorado Air National Guard to destroy the wreckage.
Some wreckage still remains.
"Literally thousands of fragments are found among the rocks," Duncan said.