Special VFR's Unknown Link to Flight Safety | Aviation International News

Special VFR's Unknown Link to Flight Safety

More than 70 years after the Special VFR category was established, its relationship with accidents remains unclear.

By Colleen Mondor

July 4, 2023

Seventy years ago, in April 1953, Western Air Lines Flight 636 crashed shortly after 11 p.m. into San Francisco Bay, killing eight of the 10 people onboard. According to the accident report, the ceiling was 800 feet broken with visibility of 10 miles in San Francisco when the DC-6 departed, and 700 feet overcast with the same visibility at Oakland, the destination 11.5 miles away.

Flight 636 was cleared under the “visual trans-bay” departure, a procedure for visual flight rules (VFR) operation between San Francisco and Oakland when conditions at both airports had ceilings less than 1,000 feet and/or visibility under three miles. While the approval circumstances were unique to San Francisco Bay, they should sound familiar to modern pilots because, while slightly altered over the years, the trans-bay operation was what we recognize as Special VFR.

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