TWA Flight 6 was a Transcontinental & Western Air Douglas DC-2, on a route from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Atlanta, Missouri Atlanta is a city in Macon County, Missouri, United States. The population was 379 at the 2020 census. History Atlanta was platted in 1858. The community was named after Atlanta, Georgia. A post office called Atlanta has been in operation since ...

, on May 6, 1935, killing five of the thirteen people on board, including Senator

Bronson M. Cutting Bronson Murray Cutting (June 23, 1888May 6, 1935) was a United States senator from New Mexico. A prominent progressive Republican, he had also been a newspaper publisher and military attaché. Biography Bronson Cutting was born in Great River, ...

of New Mexico. The airliner crashed when its wingtip hit the ground as it flew under a low

cloud ceiling In aviation, ceiling is a measurement of the height of the base of the lowest clouds (not to be confused with cloud base which has a specific definition) that cover more than half of the sky (more than 4 oktas) relative to the ground. Ceiling is ...

at very low level, over dark, fog-shrouded country, while its pilots were trying desperately to reach a nearby emergency landing field before their fuel ran out. Investigators from the

Bureau of Air Commerce The Air Commerce Act of 1926 created an Aeronautic Branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Its functions included testing and licensing of pilots, certification of aircraft and investigation of accidents. In 1934, the Aeronautics Bran ...

concluded that several factors had led up to this crisis, including communications malfunctions, darkness, inaccurate weather forecasts, worsening weather at the destination airport, and errors in judgment both from the airline dispatchers and the flight crew; they also found TWA in violation of several aviation regulations. Senator Cutting's death drove Congress to look into the Bureau's own management of civil aviation. Senator Royal S. Copeland established a special subcommittee, the Copeland Committee, which held hearings that harshly criticized the Bureau and released a controversial preliminary report that blamed the Bureau's management for the accident. This political battle played a major role in the Bureau of Air Commerce being replaced in 1938 by the newly formed

Civil Aeronautics Authority 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 ...

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