American Airlines Flight 1 (1936)
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 14, 1936 |
| Summary | Undetermined |
| Site | Near Goodwin, Arkansas, United States |
| Passengers | 14 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 17 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| 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 |
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.
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
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Aviation Safety Network".
- ↑ "Plane Crash Info.com".
- ↑ "Plane Crash Info.com".