1941 — Oct 30, American Air #1 Crashes, NYC to Chicago, St. Thomas, Ont. Canada– 20
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 9-22-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–20 Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD. “Thirty-Four Dead in Plane Crashes.” 10-31-1941, p. 1.
–20 Eckert. “Fatal commercial air transport crashes, 1924-1981.” AJFM&P, 3/1, March 1982, p. 52.
–20 Planecrashinfo.com. “1941…Accident Details.”
Narrative Information
Planecrashinfo.com. Accident Details…1941:
“Date: October 30, 1941
“Time: 22:10
“Location: St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada
“Operator: American Airlines
“Flight#: 1
“Route: New York – Buffalo – Chicago – Detroit
“AC Type: Douglas DC-3
“Registration: NC25663
“cn / In : 2207
“Aboard: 20 (passengers: 17 crew: 3)
“Fatalities: 20 (passengers: 17 crew: 3)
“Ground: 0
“Summary: While descending to Detroit, the crew was advised by ATC to abandon the approach due to poor weather conditions. The crew began to descend, circling to the right and apparently banked normally for the radius and speed of the turns. After completing four circles, the plane recovered from the spiral in close proximity to the ground, went up to an altitude of about 200 to 500 feet and then pitched down and crashed in an open field. There was no fire in the plane prior to impact. No evidence of sabotage was discovered. There was no power plant failure prior to the accident, and the engines were functioning normally at the time the plane struck the ground. Nothing was found to indicate that there had been any structural failure or failure of the control system of the plane. As a result of the complete destruction of some portions of the plane, it was impossible to eliminate the possibility that such failure occurred. The probable cause of the accident was listed by the CAB as undetermined.”
Newspaper
Oct 31: “St. Thomas, Ont., Oct. 31. (AP) – All 20 occupants of an American Airlines transport were killed last night when the big plane plowed into the earth 14 miles west of here and burst into such fierce flames that no attempt at rescue could be made.
“The 17 passengers and three members of the crew of the 21-passenger Douglas airliner were all
from the United States, bound through a drizzling rain on the Buffalo-Detroit leg of a regular flight from New York to Chicago.
“Twenty-seven-year-old Mary E. Blackley of New York city, the stewardess, was the only woman victim.
“There was no immediate explanation for the disaster, the second within a day to befall an American air transport and the worst air disaster in Canadian history. It was the first crash of an American Airlines plane since February, 1936.
“With 20 dead here and 14 killed early yesterday morning in the crash of a Northwest Airlines plane near Moorhead, Minn., the day was the most disastrous in loss of life of any in the history of American commercial aviation.
“Visibility was poor when the plane, on its course, crashed at about 10:30 p., m., E.S.T., on the farm of Thompson Howe at Lawrence station.
“It was due at 10:17 p. m. on the run from Buffalo, one leg of a flight which began at La Guardia field, New York, with Chicago as its final destination.
“When the plane struck, there was one big explosion followed by a series of smaller ones. Flaming gasoline gushed out. Before Howe could reach it, several hundred yards from his house, it was engulfed in flames. Farmers, provincial police from St. Thomas and officers from the Royal Canadian air force school at nearby Fingal, who arrived quickly, were powerless to aid. Flames shot up from the wrecked plane, holding them at a distance. One report said all the victims perished inside the plane.
“Lewis Biddle, a Lawrence Station storekeeper who was one of the first at the scene, however, said three bodies tumbled outside but the flames roared up with the impact of the crash and they were burned before they could be reached.
“Besides Miss Blackley, the crew was composed of Capt. David L. Cooper, 34, of Plandome, N. Y., and First Officer R. L. Owens, 30, of New York City.
“Biddle said a light showed in the murky night sky before the crash, indicating that the pilot had dropped a flare in an effort to find a landing spot. The plane circled around, he said, then skimmed the ground and shot up, only to slideslip and crash. Its nose was buried in the ground, and debris was strewn in an area with a radius of 200 feet or more. The left wing was only partly destroyed but the right wing was smashed to bits.
“The fire still was burning more than an hour after the crash when a bucket brigade of farmers, getting water from nearby pumps, were able to start extinguishing it. As the flames began to subside long after the crash, the fire department from Shedden played streams of water on them. The fire apparatus had to come nine miles and draw water from the Howe well.
“Mrs. Howe said she thought at first the plane was from the air force school but ‘then something
about the sound of the motors made me decide to take a look.’ Watching from the back door, she said, she saw the plane just miss high-tension wires and crash in an oat field about 200 yards from her house.
Hugh Smith, a Lawrence Station farmer, said he thought he heard the plane’s motors sputter as it
passed over his house….
“Thompson Howe, first to reach the plane, said: ‘I was at the barn when it fell. It crashed in my field near the road, about a quarter of a mile from my house. When I got to it the plane was a mass of flames. I’m sure no one got out. I heard nothing before the crash.’….” (Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD. “Thirty-Four Dead in Plane Crashes; Big Transport Burns After Falling.” 10-31-1941, pp. 1, 14.)
Sources
Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD. “Thirty-Four Dead in Plane Crashes; Big Transport Burns After Falling.” 10-31-1941, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=92126078
Eckert, William G. “Fatal commercial air transport crashes, 1924-1981.” American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1982, Table 1.
Planecrashinfo.com. “1941…Accident Details…American Airlines Flight #1, Oct 30, 1941.” Accessed 9-23-2024 at: https://www.planecrashinfo.com/1941/1941-23.htm