Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft that was ditched into Puget Sound, just off Maury Island at the Point Robinson Light, shortly after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on the morning of Monday, April 2, 1956.

[4] Believing the aircraft unairworthy, he considered returning to Sea-Tac or diverting to McChord Air Force Base south of Tacoma, but the buffeting worsened and the Stratocruiser began to lose altitude.

The open cowl flaps could also disrupt the flow of air over the wings and it was therefore necessary to close them during critical phases of flight such as takeoff when maximum lift was needed.

[4] Tests performed by CAB investigators showed that a Stratocruiser that took off with all cowl flaps open responded very similarly to a one-engine shut down; the aircraft could be turned and flown for some time before becoming too unstable to remain aloft.

However, the captain was convinced that the problem had been caused by asymmetric wing flaps, a situation that would make all but the slightest turn dangerous, and decided to maintain the southwest heading and ditch, based on that analysis.