1950
- March 7: Northwest Flight 307, a Martin 202 on approach to Minneapolis from Rochester, Minnesota and Madison, Wisconsin, and flying through blowing snow and minimal visibility, hits a flagpole and then a residential house near the airport. The 10 passengers, 3 crew, and 2 children in the house are killed.
- April 30: U.S. and Canadian authority is given for Northwest to pick up and drop off passengers at Edmonton, Alberta, on the Minneapolis – Anchorage run.
- June 3: Service is expanded to Taipei, Taiwan.
- June 23-24: NWA Flight 2501, a DC-4 flying from New York to Minneapolis, is lost during extreme nighttime thunderstorm activity over Lake Michigan. The wreckage is never found, and remains the longest unsolved commercial aviation disaster in U.S. history.
- June 30: Northwest opens scheduled service to Taipei, Taiwan.
- July 25: Hostilities in Korea force suspension of commercial service to Seoul; Northwest is selected by the U.S. government as prime contractor for the Korean air lift.
- September 4: NWA Flight 163, a local from Minneapolis to Seattle operated by a Martin 202, attempts takeoff from Billings, Montana. The hydraulic system fails before takeoff and braking is ineffective, as is steering. Reverse thrust slows the craft but it goes off the runway and toward a cliff. Only a well-placed drainage culvert manages to stop the runaway airplane. The 3 crew and 15 passengers evacuate safely.
- October 13: While on a training flight out of Minneapolis, a Martin 202 experiences prop reversal on its right-hand engine. The crew try to regain control but crash near Almelund, Minnesota; all 6 aboard are killed.
- November 7: NWA Flight 115, operated by a Martin 202, operating the milk run across Montana bound for Seattle, crashes into a mountain on approach to Butte inbound from Missoula. All 4 crew and 17 passengers are killed.
1951
- January 16: NWA Flight 115, a Martin 202 flying westbound from Spokane to Wenatchee, Yakima, and Seattle, crashes near Reardan, Washington, killing the 3 crew and 7 passengers. The CAB investigation is unable to determine the loss of control.
- March 19: Service to Hong Kong begins via connecting service with Hong Kong Airways.
- April 6: Southwest Airways Flight 7, operated by a DC-3, crashes near Santa Barbara in poor weather, killing all 22 aboard.
1952
- January 19: NWA Flight 324, a military charter moving troops from Tokyo to McChord AFB in Washington State, operated with a C-54 (military DC-4), diverts enroute from Anchorage to McChord to Sandspit, British Columbia due to a broken oil cooler on its #1 engine. After a brief stop, the aircraft stalls on takeoff due to icing and power loss, and splashes into the ocean about 1 mile offshore. The aircraft is evacuated; however due to drowning and hypothermia, all 3 crew and 33 of the 40 passengers are killed.
- Wisconsin Central Airlines moves its headquarters to Minneapolis/St. Paul and is renamed North Central Airlines.
- West Coast Airlines purchases Empire Airways.
- July: Bonanza is awarded local services between Phoenix and Los Angeles, with stops at Ajo, Yuma, El Centro, Oceanside, San Diego, Santa Ana, and Laguna Beach.
1953
- September 27: NWA starts Seattle-Portland nonstop service.
1954
- September 27: Donald W. Nyrop becomes president of Northwest.
- Hal Carr, a vice president of Wisconsin Central from 1947 until 1952, returns to North Central as President and General Manager. He will lead North Central and Republic as Chairman until his retirement in 1984.
- December 10: NWA service expands to Miami through interchange flights with Eastern Airlines, via Chicago and Atlanta.
- The four-engine Douglas DC-6 joins the Northwest fleet.
1955
- January 1: Northwest voluntarily becomes the first airline to operate without government subsidy on trans-Pacific and United States-Alaska routes. It is hoped that this overture will result in favorable decisions on requested route authorities. (It does not.)
- Northwest flies its first Lockheed L-1049 Constellation.
- May 1: North Central begins service at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport (in addition to its extensive schedule at Midway Airport), and also commences flights on the Chicago – South Bend, Indiana – Kalamazoo / Battle Creek, Michigan – Jackson, Michigan – Detroit (Willow Creek Airport / Ypsilanti), a routing picked up from American Airlines.
- September 6: NWA Flight 8 from Seattle to Chicago, operated by an L-1049 Constellation, loses control of the propeller on its #3 engine shortly after takeoff; then loses oil pressure in its #4 engine. An emergency landing at McChord AFB in Tacoma is executed but the aircraft’s hydraulic system had not built up enough pressure to lock down its landing gear. The aircraft swerves off the runway and bursts into flame. However, the crew of 6 successfully evacuates all 26 passengers.
- October 30: Northwest begins Chicago – Detroit – New York trunkline service. NWA is competing on one of the nation’s busiest routes head-to-head against American, United, TWA, and Capital.
1956
- January 1: Northwest leases Shemya Island in the Aleutian chain from the U.S. government for use as a fuel stop on the North Pacific route, thus becoming the first airline to operate its own airport.
- April 2: Northwest Flight 2, departing Seattle and bound for Portland, Chicago, and New York, ditches into Puget Sound. The B-377 Stratocruiser’s engine cooling flaps had been incorrectly set, causing the aircraft to stall. The water landing was smooth and all passengers and crew were able to evacuate; however, due to the length of time spent in the cold ocean water before a rescue boat could arrive, one flight attendant and four travelers died of hypothermia.
- Northwest announces it will centralize operations at a new $17.5 million base at Minneapolis/St. Paul’s Wold-Chamberlain Field (formerly Speedway Flying Field, site of the airline’s original base of operations in 1926).
1957
- NWA’s First Class “Imperial Service” is introduced.
- Clear air turbulence forecasting is pioneered by NWA.
- The Douglas DC-7C is added to the Northwest fleet, the first Northwest aircraft capable of cruise speeds faster than 300 mph.
- June 1: North Central launches local service from Omaha, Nebraska northward to Grand Forks, North Dakota, taking over a route from Braniff Airways.
- July 2: Bonanza launches Las Vegas – Los Angeles service, via Apple Valley and Ontario/Riverside, California.
1958
- May 6: Southwest Airways changes its name to Pacific Air Lines to better reflect the territory it serves.
- August 28: NWA Flight 537, a DC-6B departing the Twin Cities for Portland, crashes on takeoff. All 4 crew and 58 passengers successfully evacuate, but the aircraft is engulfed in fire.
- September 8: West Coast introduces Fokker F-27 services.
- December 6: Florida service is launched on Northwest via Chicago to Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami. Nonstops later added from Twin Cities and Milwaukee.
1959
- March 1: North Central begins service on routes abandoned by Western Airlines and Braniff Airways. In South Dakota, stations are opened at Rapid City, Pierre, Spearfish, Aberdeen, Huron, and Mitchell. In North Dakota, Minot, Bismarck, and Devils Lake are opened. And in Minnesota, service starts at Mankato and Worthington.
- March 29: Bonanza introduces the Fokker F-27 turboprop into service.
- April 26: North Central’s first five Convair 440s begin operations with emphasis on providing service to the newly acquired routes previously been flown by Braniff and Western. North Central’s longest route (Duluth to Chicago) is also flown by the faster Northliner with additional service centered around NOR’s main hubs of Chicago (Midway) and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
- June 1: New York-Anchorage-Tokyo polar service is inaugurated.
- September 27: Northwest begins service to Atlanta as an intermediate stop on its Upper Midwest – Florida services.
- Northwest enters the jet age with its first Lockheed L-188 Electra turbo-prop airliner.
- Pacific Air Lines takes delivery of six Fokker F-27 turboprops.
Timeline Navigation
Click on the links below or use the top navigation to read through the Northwest Family history, decade by decade:
