attendants to safety. Victims were taken to the airport's medical center, Peninsula General Hospital, or Queens General Hospital. Two of the survivors had critical injuries, while others were less seriously injured. Aircraft The aircraft was a Douglas DC-7B four-engined passenger aircraft. It was manufactured in September 1956 and had manufacturer's serial number 45084. It was registered by Eastern Air Lines with tail number N815D and had a total flying time of 18,411 hours at the time of the crash. It was powered by four Wright model 972TC18DA piston propeller engines. Passengers and crew The captain of the flight was Edward Bechtold, aged 43. He had been employed at Eastern Air Lines since April 1945 and had logged a total of 15,644 hours of flight time, including 2,700 on the DC-7 type aircraft. In 1943, he received the Air Medal for meritorious achievement from Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, commander of Allied air forces in the Southwest Pacific. He was the chairman of the New York Air Safety Committee. The copilot was Julius Wagner, aged 45. He had been employed at the airline since March 1951 and had accumulated a total of 9,042 hours of flight time, including 1,610 hours in the DC-7. The flight engineer was Robert Voorhees, age 31. He had accumulated a total of 4,080 hours of flight time, which included 149 hours as a flight engineer and 718 hours as a pilot in DC-7 aircraft. He had been employed at the airline since August 1957. All three pilots were killed in the crash. An additional crew member who was not working this flight occupied the jump seat in the cockpit and was also killed. The two flight attendants, Helen Fournier, aged 21, and Patricia Richards, aged 22, survived the crash and assisted with the evacuation of survivors of the crash. They were credited with saving the lives of people who might have otherwise died in the fire that consumed the aircraft after the crash. Fournier had started her employment with Eastern Air Lines in April 1962, and was on only her third flight at the time of the crash. The plane carried 45 passengers at the time of the crash. All of the passengers were from the United States except one, who was from Canada. Twenty one of the passengers were killed, and some of the survivors were injured. All of the survivors were seated in the