What happened when a propeller blade pierced the cabin of an Eastern Constellation in 1948?

On February 7, 1948, Eastern Air Lines' Lockheed L-649 Constellation NC112A, operating flight 611, was flying over the Atlantic 156 miles from Brunswick, Georgia, about three hours after takeoff, when the number three propeller failed and one of its blades broke off. A piece of the blade penetrated the fuselage and severed engine controls, electrical wiring, and flight control cables. As it passed through the floor it killed one crew member, the only casualty of the incident. The front section of the number three engine later separated as well.

Despite having lost control of one engine and completely lost another, the crew managed to bring the aircraft to West Palm Beach Airport in Florida and land without further damage. The investigation attributed the failure of the number three propeller to the high stress caused by repeated engine malfunction. The Constellation, with its four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 radial engines, had several propeller and engine incidents in its early years: in 1953 a broken blade forced an Air France L-749 to ditch off Turkey.

Although it suffered significant damage, the NC112A was repaired, rebuilt to L-749A standard, and returned to service. It did not have a happy ending: it was destroyed in an accident in 1955. Eastern Air Lines was one of Lockheed's main customers for the Constellation family, of which 856 aircraft were built between 1943 and 1958 in Burbank, California. That same year, on April 15, 1948, Pan Am flight 1-10's L-049 crashed while attempting to land at Shannon, Ireland, killing 30 of the 31 people aboard.