1977 — Dec 13, Univ. of Evansville basketball team charter plane crash, Evansville, IN- all 29

— 29 Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Indiana.
— 29 NTSB. Aircraft Accident Report. National Jet Services, Inc. Evansville… 8-17-1978, 1.
— 29 Panama City News-Herald, FL. “College Mourns Crash Victims.” 12-15-1977, p. 3C.

Narrative Information

NTSB Synopsis: “At 1922:22 c.s.t. on December 13, 1977, a Douglass DC-3, N51071, operated by National Jet Services, Inc., as a passenger charter flight to transport the University of Evansville basketball team and associated personnel from Evansville, Indiana, to Nashville, Tennessee, crashed within the boundaries of the Evansville Dress Regional Airport, Indiana. The aircraft departed runway 18 in instrument meteorological conditions. The plane crashed less than 1 minute 30 seconds after takeoff. All 29 persons aboard died in the crash.

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was an attempted takeoff with the rudder and right aileron control locks installed, in combination with a rearward c. g. [center of gravity], which resulted in the aircraft’s rotating to a nose-high attitude immediately after takeoff, and entering the region of reversed command from which the pilot was unable to recover. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the flightcrew to insure that the passenger baggage was loaded in accordance with the configuration contained on the load manifest. Their failure resulted in a rearward center of gravity that was aft of the optimum range, but forward of the rearmost limit.” (p. 1.)

“Two witnesses on the passenger terminal ramp stated that the DC-3 entered a nose-high, steep climbing left turn shortly after liftoff. One witness estimated that the aircraft was in a 15⁰ to 18” nose-up attitude and said that he ‘didn’t think he could make it, he was going to stall from the attitude of the airplane.’ Both witnesses stated that the aircraft entered a steep climbing left turn at a 45⁰ bank angle about 25 ft above the runway, and the turn began about 2,500 ft beyond the threshold of runway 18….” (p. 3.)

“Survival Aspects

“The accident was not survivable. Except for the pilot and the observer [charter company], all persons were thrown free of the wreckage; most occupants were found down the side of the ravine, on the railroad tracks below, and to the south of the wreckage. According to the rescue workers, most of the passengers remained strapped in their seats. Although four passengers were found alive, three died shortly after being found and the fourth died about 0025 on December 14, after being taken to a hospital….” (p. 12.)

(National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. National Jet Services, Inc. Evansville Dress Regional Airport, Indiana, December 13, 1977. Washington: NTSB, 8-17-1978.)

Newspaper

Dec 15, Panama City News-Herald (AP): “Evansville, Ind. (AP) — The University of Evansville basketball team, killed in a plane crash, was mourned by once-cheerful fans Wednesday. As the students gathered for the memorial service, federal investigators were sorting through what was left of the ancient DC-3 that was to have carried the Aces to a game in Tennessee.

“Eight of the 14 basketball players killed were freshmen, just months out of high school. The crash killed 29 in all, including the coach of the team, two Evansville boosters and the crew of three.

“The Aces, with a season’s record of 1-3, were en route to Middle Tennessee State University at
Murfreesboro. Their plane had left the airport only a minute before it crashed, scattering wreckage and bodies on both sides of a ravine and down among some railroad tracks.

“It was a fearful night, with visibility only 300 feet and three-quarters of a mile. The ‘go team’ of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates and determines probable causes of such crashes, was more than two hours late leaving Washington because of the continuing bad weather at Evansville, in the southwest corner of Indiana.

“The bodies were removed during the night in railroad boxcars — the easiest way of getting them out.

“The ill-fated DC-3, a twin-engine propeller craft chartered from National Jet Service of Indianapolis, had taken off on a runway heading south, banked sharply left and had completed about a 270-degree turn when it crashed about a quarter-mile from Dress Regional Airport. ‘It probably was headed in a direction I can’t account for at this time,’ said Philip Hogue, a member of the five-man National Transportation Safety Board.

“A grim scene faced the investigators. The plane’s tail, its American flag and number N51071 unscarred, jutted at the horizon. A propeller was 200 feet away. The embankment on each side of the railroad tracks was littered with electric-blue seats, some of them still with their belts buckled. ‘Every place there was a seat, there was a body,’ said one young man who helped bring out the mangled and torn bodies Tuesday night. A brown suitcase, still locked, was standing upright in a mud puddle. A single brown shoe, its laces tied, was nearby. Two first-aid boxes, one with its contents spilled and the other still closed, also were there. Two bodies still were in the wreckage.

“The bodies were removed to various funeral homes Wednesday after lying in a makeshift morgue at the downtown Community Center, 10 miles from the crash site. Two pathologists from the Civil Aeronautical Medical Institute in Oklahoma City were to conduct autopsies of the pilot and co-pilot.

“There was no ‘black box’ flight recorder in the plane. ‘It is not required in the charter business apparently,’ said Hogue. ‘This whole business is under consideration by the Federal Aviation Administration as to what they’ll consider for charter flights and air taxi operators.’ Hogue said there had been no conversation with the airport tower that indicated the pilots were aware of any problems. Such tapes would be requested routinely by the investigators.

“It was the fifth major air crash this year, which safety board spokesman Bob Buckhorn said has been the worst for commercial air travel fatalities. Last year had the lowest number of deaths in 20 years, he said. The biggest airline fatality total was 578 in the collision of two jumbo jets at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The other major crashes included a Southern Airways DC-9 that went down near New Hope, Ga., killing 47; the death of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band near Gillsburg, Miss., on Nov. 6, and the crash of a New York Airways helicopter that killed five in July.” (Panama City News-Herald, FL. “College Mourns Crash Victims.” 12-15-1977, p. 3C.)

Sources

Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Indiana. Accessed 3/9/2009 at: http://www.baaa-acro.com/Pays/Etats-Unis/Indiana.htm

National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. National Jet Services, Inc. Evansville Dress Regional Airport, Indiana, December 13, 1977. Washington: NTSB, 8-17-1978 (52 pages). Accessed 9-29-2021 at: http://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR78-10.pdf

Panama City News-Herald, FL. “College Mourns Crash Victims.” 12-15-1977, p. 3C. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=162512277