Northeast Airlines Flight 285 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Boston's Logan International Airport to New York's LaGuardia Airport with stops in Hyannis, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and New Bedford that crashed on September 15, 1957, while trying to land at New Bedford.

[3] On its final approach to New Bedford, it smashed a 400-foot (120 m) path through trees and went down about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) short of the runway, in the Apponegansett Swamp.

According to the report, at the time of the crash the ceiling at the airport was 200 feet (61 m) and there was visibility of one-half mile (0.80 km).

They found that Flight 285 had descended prematurely and to a low and unsafe altitude in an attempt to approach the airport visually.

A descent occurred which was not recognized by the pilots in time for corrective action, resulted in the plane striking trees and crashing about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) short of the runway threshold.