The Lockheed Constellation L-1049H was transporting 68 military personal of the United States Army from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey to Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany.

Approximately an hour later and after the L-1049H started to divert to Shannon, Ireland, the number 2 engine caught on fire and was forced to be at reduced thrust.

The aircraft ditched in the North Atlantic Ocean, where 48 occupants survived for six hours on a life raft until the MS Celerina arrived at the scene.

[1][2] The pilot in command was 44-years-old and had logged about 17500 hours of flying time, 4300 of which were on the L-1049 aircraft.

The weather in Keflavik, Iceland was poor, so the crew chose to continue to Shannon.

At 21:57 Riddle 18H, a Douglas DC-7 was in visual contact with Flight 923 and provided weather reports to the crew.

51 people climbed on board the raft, double its capacity, three of whom died later.

Although this mistake was immediately recognized and reverted by Garrett, it was too late because lack of oil in the engine led to overspeed.

Investigators also criticized the captain for landing into the waves, because this increased the impact forces and may have led to the left wing detaching, taking two life rafts with it.