Which Constellation crashed after being struck by lightning on takeoff from Milan?

On 26 June 1959, Trans World Airlines Flight 891 took off from Malpensa Airport in a Lockheed L-1649, the last and most advanced evolution of the Constellation family. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft, registered N7313C, was struck by lightning and exploded. The wreckage fell in the municipality of Olgiate Olona. There were no survivors: all nine crew members and 59 passengers died, 68 people in total.

The L-1649 represented the final stage in the development of the Constellation as a piston-engine commercial airliner. It reached the airlines in the late 1950s, just as the first commercial jets were about to transform air transport, and its front-line career was correspondingly short.

Lightning striking an aircraft in flight is relatively common and, as a rule, has no serious consequences. The case of Flight 891 is remembered precisely because the strike triggered an explosion that destroyed the aircraft, an exceptional outcome. The accident appears in the extensive list of mishaps suffered by Constellations throughout their operational life, which includes accidents on almost every continent and with both civilian and military operators. Together with other incidents of the time, it contributed to the industry paying growing attention to protecting aircraft against atmospheric electrical discharges, an aspect that today forms part of the certification of any transport aircraft.

The registration, date and toll of Flight 891 are documented in the family's list of accidents, where the case stands out for its cause: not a mechanical failure or a piloting error, but a weather phenomenon in the middle of the climb phase.