The flight was scheduled for Washington National Airport, but was diverted to Dulles when high crosswinds, east at and gusting to, prevented safe operations on the main north-south runway at Washington National. The flight was being vectored for a non-precision instrument approach to runway 12 at Dulles. Air traffic controllers cleared the flight down to before clearing them for the approach while not on a published segment. The jetliner began a descent to, shown on the first checkpoint for the published approach. The cockpit voice recorder later indicated there was some confusion in the cockpit over whether they were still under a radar-controlled approach segment which would allow them to descend safely. After reaching there were some altitude deviations which the flight crew discussed as encountering heavy downdrafts and reduced visibility in snow. The plane impacted the west slope of Mount Weather at above sea level at approximately. The wreckage was contained within an area about. The evidence of first impact were trees sheared off about above the ground; the elevation at the base of the trees was. The wreckage path was oriented along a line 118 degrees magnetic. Calculations indicated that the left wing went down about six degrees as the aircraft passed through the trees and the aircraft was descending at an angle of about one degree. After about of travel through the trees, it struck a rock outcropping at an elevation of about. Numerous heavy components of the aircraft were thrown forward of the outcropping, and numerous intense post-impact fires broke out which were later extinguished. The mountain's summit is at above sea level.
Investigation
The accident investigation board was split in its decision as to whether the flight crew or Air Traffic Control were The majority absolved the controllers as the plane was not on a published approach segment; the dissenting opinion was that the flight had been radar Terminology between pilots and controllers differed without either group being aware of the discrepancy. It was common practice at the time for controllers to release a flight to its own navigation with "Cleared for the approach," and flight crews commonly believed that was also authorization to descend to the altitude at which the final segment of the approach began. No clear indication had been given by controllers to Flight 514 that they were no longer on a radar vector segment and therefore responsible for their own navigation. Procedures were clarified after this accident. Controllers now state, "Maintain until established on a portion of the approach," and pilots now understand that previously assigned altitudes prevail until an altitude change is authorized on the published approach segment the aircraft is currently flying. Ground proximity detection equipment was also mandated for the airlines. During the NTSB investigation, it was discovered that a United Airlines flight had very narrowly escaped the same fate during the same approach and at the same location only six weeks prior. The flight is also of note in that the accident drew undesired attention to the Mount Weather facility, which was the linchpin of plans implemented by the federal government to ensure continuity in the event of a nuclear war. The crash did not damage the facility, since most of its features were underground. Only its underground main phone line was severed, with service to the complex being restored by C&P Telephone within 2½ hours after the crash.
Aftermath
The crash, its aftermath, and its repercussions are the subject of the 1977 book Sound of Impact: The Legacy of TWA Flight 514 by Adam Shaw. TWA Flight 514 is also mentioned in the closing of the second chapter of Mark Oliver Everett's book Things the Grandchildren Should Know and in F. Lee Bailey's book . In 2015, a documentary entitled Diverted: TWA 514 was released. This was one of two Boeing 727s to crash in the U.S. that day; the other was Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 in New York state, on its way to pick up the Baltimore Coltsfootball team in Buffalo. Congressman-elect Andy Jacobs of Indiana was almost on the flight, but chose not to pay the $20 seat upgrade charge and took another flight to Washington. After losing his seat in 1972, Jacobs had recently won it back; a member of his staff was killed on the flight. Retired Brigadier General Roscoe Cartwright, one of the U.S. Army's first blackgenerals, and his wife were also on the flight.
