While the boys tended the radio, she scanned the sky for black clouds that would signal the approach of a severe storm. This Hollywood staple makes for good cinema, but in real life it usually ends in catastrophe and while McKenzie and Keele were not the first to discover this, they were the last, as no passenger jet pilot has tried again since. Another man, engulfed in flames, was running blindly toward the creek behind her house. The nose cone had separated from the rest of the plane and plowed into a five-foot ditch in the Burkhalters side yard, landing upside down. Pets are welcome to travel in the cabin on select flights. ", "Southern Airways Express Tries to Replace Big Airlines One Small Mississippi Airport at a Time", "Southern Airways extends service in New Bedford, plans to base New England fleet at airport", "Southern Airways Announces Strategic Minority Investment By SkyWest, New Alliance Between the Companies", "Southern Airways to Bring Larger Turboprop Aircraft to Molokai and Lnai | Maui Now", "News for Airlines, Airports and the Aviation Industry | CAPA", "Interview: The Southern Airways Express Saab340 Unveiled AirlineGeeks.com", "Multi-Aero Inc. d/b/a Air Choice One to be Acquired by Southern Airways Corporation", "Tailwind Air Service to launch commuter ops in New York", "American Airlines interline with Southern Airways could benefit El Dorado", "Southern Airways Express FAA Aircraft Registration", "Southern Airways Express Purchases 20 REGENT Seagliders for their U.S. East Coast Operations in $250M Deal", List of defunct airlines of the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Airways_Express&oldid=1141345831, Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 16:10. 00:00 00:30 Fly Local, Fly Easy at DUJ If performed promptly, this action will prevent fatal damage to engine components. The investigation would ultimately center on the weather conditions which flight 242 encountered over Georgia that afternoon. Immediately, large hail began to pummel the DC-9 aircraft. [12][15], The text of the marker states:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}. Several hours later, now nearing the end of their shift, McKenzie and Keele departed the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, before landing in nearby Huntsville 23 minutes later. The data for the following story was gathered from the official accident report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board. This trust proved to be misplaced. She tried twice to climb out, falling back both times before succeeding the third time. Some passengers were killed on impact, while others were ejected from the fuselage alive but injured. The flight lost engine power on both an engines and attempted to make an emergency landing. Alarmed and determined to protect her children, Sadie handed Eddie to Steve and told the boys to go to one corner of the basement where the family took shelter in bad weather. Southern began service in 2013 by offering flights from Memphis, Tenn. to Destin, Fla. using a total of four pilots and three aircraft. Your Privacy Rights Jackson - SOUTHERN AIRWAYS EXPRESS Jackson Jackson, Tennessee, halfway between Memphis and Nashville, is known as The Hub City of West Tennessee. (Executive Express Aviation was later sold to FLOAT Shuttle in 2019 for an undisclosed sum, when all Southern-operated flights were consolidated to its primary certificate.). On the 4th of April 1977, a brief flight from Huntsville, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia took a terrifying turn when the DC-9 encountered a powerful thunderstorm at 17,000 feet. That lovely spring afternoon, she stood in her living room and witnessed a scene almost out of a horror film. Give me Im familiar with Dobbins, he said. The smoke was so thick that I couldnt see the neighbors. Yet she knew she had to do everything in her power to assist the injured passengers. Unknown to anyone on board, the DC-9s engines were on the verge of failure. And yet, through the change wrought by decades, the horror which took place there has not been forgotten. Contact me via @Admiral_Cloudberg on Reddit, @KyraCloudy on Twitter, or by email at kyracloudy97@gmail.com. Could they have damaged the engines internal components too? She didnt know it at the time, but the crash had cut off water and knocked out electricity to her house and most of her neighbors homes. Aft of the wings, eight people still inside the cabin managed to get out before fire overtook them, while in the tail section, another five escaped with their lives, including flight attendant Sandy Ward and four passengers who were thrown from the plane still strapped into their seats. The road section used for the forced landing, formerly called Georgia State Route 92 Spur, is now called DallasAcworth Highway (formerly Georgia State Route 381).[8]. Sadie decided that waiting for help to arrive was futile and that everyone in the house had to get out. By collating weather observations made in vicinity of flight 242s flight path, the NTSB was able to determine that the ill-fated DC-9 flew through a rainstorm that could only be described as torrential. A plane similar to the aircraft piloted by McKenzie and Keele.Photo by Flickr user Dean Morley. I knew something was wrong, said Steve. Flight attendant Catherine Cooper survived unscathed because she was sitting in an area that provided her with relative protection from impact forces. Curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to make sure Mother was okay. Little owned a Golden Eagle 421 which was never used by the airline, although his private pilot, Scott Honnoll, did transition to the airline and advanced to the role of assistant chief pilot before returning to general aviation in November 2015. The first installment in this three-part series is below. He was right there was no turning back now. The flight crew consisted of Captain William W. "Bill" McKenzie (54), a highly experienced pilot with 19,380 flight hours (including 3,205 hours on the DC-9), and first officer Lyman W. Keele Jr. (34), who had 3,878 flight hours, with 235 of them on the DC-9. As the passengers braced for impact, the pilots set the DC-9 down on the narrow, two lane road only for all hell to break loose as the wings clipped trees and power poles, sending the plane careening into a gas station, a forest, and a rural neighborhood. As flight 242 flew through clouds and rain after takeoff from Huntsville, the rain is thought to have attenuated the signal, blurring the boundaries between the radar returns and reducing their intensity, making it difficult to tell the difference between a dark contour and an area free of precipitation. Local residents and victims' family have formed the nonprofit New Hope Memorial Flight 242 Inc. to provide "an annual memorial service, survivor's reunion and a monument. Tall pine trees were burning and crackling like torches. Eddie, two and a half, was peddling his tricycle along, trying to keep up with the older boys. 17 July: A TAM Airlines jet crashes on landing at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster. Bud. The Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine of attempting two drone strikes in southern Russia overnight, which led to an oil depot catching on fire. Instead, the engines were destroyed from within by unchecked surging. Your mind focuses on some trivial things. I dont know the results or anything, Im sure we decompressed.. I saw people as they were coming around the windows and around the garage door. But while Captain McKenzies initial desire to land on a field would have been better, the area around New Hope is so heavily forested that it seems unlikely that they could have found one in time. Our eyes became huge, she said, and we just looked at each other, staring. Soon after, they both quit working due to extreme damage. Southern Airways Flight 242 crashed into the Paulding County area known as New Hope. The pilots rolled back engine power even more, all the way to idle, and the plane began to descend. Contact Email info@iflysouthern.com. Sun Air flew multiple EAS routes in the mid-Atlantic region, immediately strengthening Southern's presence in the federal program. Finally, the fifth one went through. As Cooper emerged into the bright light of day, the 360-degree view that opened up before her was surreal and shocking. The cabin lights went out, the pilots instrument panels went dark, and the flight recorders ceased recording. Since the acquisition, Southern has worked to retain and strengthen the Mokulele brand in the Hawaiian islands and now serves 10 airports in the state. We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Visit Southern Airways Express for more flight info! They didnt know that those explosions were continuing. Southern also began weekly seasonal service from Lancaster, PA, to Nantucket in 2021. TRENDING. The scene reminded her of historical newsreels shed seen: When I looked out the door and I saw all the people coming at me, I remember that it was just like the bit from the Hindenburg crash, the wreck of the German passenger airship that had caught fire on May 6, 1937, while trying to dock at a naval air station in New Jersey. About Southern Airways Express Airline Summary Memphis, Tennessee-based Southern Airways Express (9X) is a commuter airline that flies to about 20 destinations in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Left engine wont spool! Keele exclaimed as the damage began to take its toll on its power output. QUINCY (WGEM) - The Department of Transportation on Tuesday granted Southern Airways Express, LLC. Furthermore, the controllers could not have passed on information acquired by the NWS because the regional control centers did not receive the NWS weather reports, leaving them to rely primarily on pilot observations instead. Tragically, it was right as its engines began surging that air traffic control asked flight 242 to climb back to its assigned altitude of 15,000 feet, prompting First Officer Keele to increase engine power at the worst possible time. Thats all I see.. At that moment, the left wing struck several trees alongside the road, but the plane held straight, mowing down additional trees as it came in low over the narrow highway. The Hawaii-based commuter airline also flew the Cessna Caravan, making it a logical target for Southern. Ive got it, Ill hand fly it! said Keele. Minutes after takeoff, Flight 242 entered a heavy thunderstorm. Youre approximately ten miles south of Cartersville, fifteen miles west of Dobbins.. In the fall of 2015, Southern Airways began operating its first Essential Air Service flights on behalf of SeaPort Airlines, but it discontinued that service when Seaport Airlines filed for bankruptcy in January 2016. 737 MAX A321LR A321neo A321XLR Top 10 10 Comments. As flight 242 descended through the torrential storm with its engines at flight idle, the concentration of water inside the engines became so great that their power output could not keep up with demand. Operating Status Active. The DC-9 skidded directly into the gas station, triggering a massive explosion as it ripped the pumps out of the ground and flattened cars in the parking lot. I know, youre just gonna have to go out said McKenzie. The resulting spike in pressure inside the low pressure compressor section bent the compressor blades forward, severely damaging them. But one look at the engines showed conclusively that they were not running when the plane struck the ground. Excerpted from Southern Storm: The Tragedy of Flight 242 by Samme Chittum published by Smithsonian Books. Seven members of one family were killed when the plane struck their Toyota compact, which was parked in front of Newmans Grocery; the plane also destroyed the stores gas pumps before veering off the highway and cartwheeling onto the Burkhalters front yard, where it broke into five sections. In the cockpit, the pilots kept trying to find a way through the storm. You dont want them to, you dont ask for them, but you cant stop them. Get those engines [started]! Keele exclaimed. Tailwind Air Service, a scheduled passenger and charter seaplane operator, is the operator of the flights. While that nickname is related to its history as a railroad hub between the North and South (as well as the East and West), it also speaks to contemporary Jackson and the city's future. I ran for the telephone to let somebody know what was going on, but there was no telephone service. 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