On July 28, 1943 American Airlines Flight 63 was flown by a

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper versi ...

, named ''Flagship Ohio'', routing

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

- Louisville-

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

- Memphis, that crashed on the Louisville-Nashville sector about west of Trammel, Kentucky. The aircraft descended from until it struck trees, then slid across an open field and stopped in an upright position. Of the 22 people on board, 20 died. The cause of the crash was loss of control due to severe

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

and violent downdrafts.

Aircraft

''Flagship Ohio'' was a

manufactured by the

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated a ...

and owned and operated by

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

. Since its first flight in 1936, the aircraft had logged 17,991 hours of flight time. At the time of the crash, it serviced a domestic scheduled passenger route with several stops in

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

Crash

Flight 63 departed

at approximately 5:42 pm on July 28, 1943. The flight proceeded normally during its scheduled stops in Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, and Louisville. The aircraft arrived at its fourth stop, Louisville, at 9:42 pm. After refueling, the flight received clearance to depart at 9:54 pm. During the Louisville-Nashville leg, the ''Flagship Ohio'' was crewed by four American Airlines personnel, and carried eighteen passengers. The aircraft's departure clearance specified an altitude of to Smiths Grove, Kentucky, and then at onward to Nashville. The projected arrival time was 10:54 pm — an hour's flight. Thunderstorms around Smiths Grove caused extreme turbulence and strong downdrafts which forced the plane to lose altitude. The Smiths Grove area is characterized by hilly terrain with an elevation that ranges from above sea level. The plane clipped a clump of trees before skidding across an open field until it came to rest in an upright position in a copse of trees approximately away from its initial point of impact. The

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1938 and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services including scheduled passenger airline serviceStringer, David H."Non-Skeds: T ...

investigated the crash and determined that the extreme turbulence and conditions caused by the nearby thunderstorm created such severe flying conditions that the pilot was unable to maintain control of the aircraft. All four crewmembers died in the crash. Of the eighteen passengers, only two survived. After the loss of the ''Flagship Ohio'', American Airlines replaced the aircraft on the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati-Louisville-Nashville-Memphis route with sister DC-3 ''Flagship Missouri''. Three months later, on October 15, 1943, ''Flagship Missouri'' crashed on the Nashville-Memphis leg of the flight.

References

External links

Report
of the

PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Airlines Flight 63 63 Airliner accidents and incidents in Kentucky Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-3 Allen County, Kentucky 1943 in Kentucky Airliner accidents and incidents caused by microbursts 1943 meteorology Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1943

Aircraft

Crash

See also

References

External links