United Air Lines Flight 615 was a US transcontinental east–west airline service from Boston to Hartford, Cleveland, Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco.

On August 24, 1951, the Douglas DC-6 with registration N37550[1] operating the service, crashed on approach to Oakland, causing the death of all 44 passengers and 6 crew members on board.

At this time, the pilot, Marion W. Hedden of Los Altos, had talked with the control tower of the Civil Aeronautics Administration at the airport preparing for his landing, and had mentioned no trouble.

The plane crashed into mountainous terrain 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Oakland, careening into Tolman Peak and over its knoll, scattering on the downslope and into Dry Gulch Canyon below in a fiery explosion.

The pilot instead relied on visual reference, using the copilot's automatic direction finder (ADF).