American Airlines Flight 1 (1936)

American Airlines Flight 1
Accident
Date January 14, 1936 (1936-01-14)
Summary Undetermined
Site Near Goodwin, Arkansas, United States
Aircraft
Aircraft type Douglas DC-2-120
Operator American Airlines
Registration NC14274
Flight origin Memphis Municipal Airport, Memphis, Tennessee
Destination Little Rock National Airport, Little Rock, Arkansas
Passengers 14
Crew 3
Fatalities 17 (all)
Survivors 0

American Airlines Flight 1 was a Douglas DC-2 airliner on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Memphis to Little Rock. On Tuesday, January 14, 1936, the flight crashed into a swamp near Goodwin, Arkansas, disintegrating on impact and killing all 17 people on board. "With great difficulty the bodies of the victims were brought out of the marsh where their bodies were found scattered among fragments of the shattered plane."[1] At the time, it was the worst civil plane crash on U.S. soil.[2][3] As of 2016, it remains the deadliest crash in Arkansas state history.


Following is a list of passengers and crew on the plane, all killed in the wreck:

  • W. R. Dyess, 42, WPA administrator for Arkansas, of Little Rock. He boarded the plane at Washington and was bound home.
  • R. H. McNair, 30, WPA director of Finance, Little Rock, boarded the plane at Washington.
  • Mrs. J. S. GermiIlion, 24, wife of the Knoxville American Airlines station manager.
  • Frank C. Hart, 37, President of Hartol (petroleum) Products, New York City, en route from Nashville to Los Angelus.
  • Charles Altschul, 23, son of an affluent NY family and a licensed pilot. Returning to his aviation studies at Glendale, Calif en route from New York to Los Angeles.
  • Julian C. Cahn, 26, Los Angeles, en route from New York to Los Angeles.
  • Mrs. Samuel (Sara R.) Horovitz 35, Of Wakefield, MA, en route from Boston to Los Angeles for vacation.
  • Mrs. Benjamin (Bessie) Horovitz, 55, mother-in-law of Mrs. S. Horovitz.
  • Seba Horovitz, 4, Mrs. Samuel Horovitz' son.
  • Sam Schwartz, 45, manager of the Apollo Hotel, Atlantic City, N. J., boarded the plane at Newark, enroute to Los Angeles.
  • W. S. Hardwick, 45, President of Hardwick Construction, St. Louis, boarded the plane at Memphis for San Antonio.
  • A. D. Chernus, 37, Jefferson City, Mo., also en route to San Antonio from Memphis.
  • Nathan Porter, 43, Buyer for Hyman Brodsky of Philadelphia. Bound for New Mexico. Boarded the plane at Memphis.
  • Henry W. Flato, 26, VP of American Bed & Furniture Co, Laredo, Texas, en route home from Memphis.
  • Pilot Gerald V. Marshall, 40, Fort Worth, Texas, American Airlines Flight Operations Manager
  • Co-Pilot Glenn Freeland. 32, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Hostess Perla Gasparini, 23, Memphis, new hire stewardess from Shaw, MS

Cause

A cause for the crash could not be determined, though probable causes include passenger interference, fuel exhaustion in one tank, flying below a safe altitude, and/or the co-pilot somehow being alone at the controls.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Pickard, Edward W., "Seventeen Persons Die in Airplane Crash", Current Events in Review, Western Newspaper Union, The Perkins Journal, Perkins, Payne County, Oklahoma, Thursday 30 January 1936, Volume XLVI, Number 17, page 2.
  2. ↑ "Aviation Safety Network".
  3. ↑ "Plane Crash Info.com".
  4. ↑ "Plane Crash Info.com".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.