The airplane was a Douglas DC-3-362, registered NC1946.
The pilot in command was Captain Wayne C. Williams, an 11-year employee of T&WA. He had 12,204 hours total flight time with more than 3,500 hours in DC-3s. He had flown 204 hours at night within the previous six months. The co-pilot was S. Morgan Gillette, who had been with T&WA for a little less than 1 year, 6 months. He had 1,330 hours of flight time with 650 in DC-3s.
After a refueling stop at Las Vegas Airport, the airliner departed at 7:07 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, on the final leg of the flight to the Lockheed Air Terminal at Burbank, California (officially, the Bob Hope Airport, but now known as Hollywood Burbank Airport). It was dark, but the weather was clear. Because of wartime regulations, the lighted airway beacons on the route had been extinguished.
At 7:20 p.m., PST, Flight 3 crashed into a vertical cliff face on Potosi Mountain, an 8,517-foot (2,596 meters) mountain 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The DC-3 was completely destroyed and all 22 persons aboard were killed, including actress Carole Lombard, Mrs. Clark Gable.
In planning the flight, the crew had made an error in the compass course for this leg of the flight. Their written flight plan, filed with the airline’s operations department, indicated a compass course of 218° which took them directly to the mountain.
Carole Lombard (née Jane Alice Peters) was one of the most successful motion picture actresses in Hollywood. She was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1908, and had her first motion picture role in 1921. At age 16, she was under contract to the Fox Film Corporation and as was customary, was given a more dramatic name. She was primarily a comedic actress though she also had several dramatic roles.
Lombard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in “My Man Godfrey” which starred William Powell, to whom she was married 1931–1933. In 1938, Lombard married actor Clark Gable.
Carole Lombard had been on a War Bonds tour and was returning home to Hollywood. She was seated in an aisle seat in the third row, next to a U.S. Army private. Her mother, Elizabeth Peters, was seated directly across the aisle.
The DC-3-362 was 64 feet, 5 inches (19.634 meters) long with a wingspan of 95 feet (28.956 meters). It was 16 feet, 11 inches (5.156 meters) high. The airplane weighed approximately 18,000 pounds (8,165 kilograms) empty and had a gross weight of 25,200 pounds (11,431 kilograms).
The DC-3 had a cruise speed of 150 miles per hour (241 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 237 miles per hour (381 kilometers per hour) at 8,500 feet (2,591 meters). The airplane had a service ceiling 24,000 feet (7,315 meters), and its range was 1,025 miles (1,650 kilometers).
The Douglas DC-3 was in production for 11 years with 10,655 civil and C-47 military airplanes built, and another 5,000 license-built copies. Over 400 are still in commercial service.
Commercial Aviation Archaeology has a very informative site on this accident at:
https://www.lostflights.com/Commercial-Aviation/11642-TWA-TWA-Douglas-DC-3/
© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes
now known Hollywood Burbank Airport
shouldn’t there be an “as” after known?
Yes. It’s there, now. 🙂
Clark Gable spent many days at the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, NV waiting for news of his wife. At the bar, there are burn marks in the wood where he sat and extinguished many cigars while waiting. In a dining room, they have many pictures, Newspaper articles and items from the crash.
https://pioneersaloonnv.com/fun-facts-and-folklore
The “Lost Flights” link is another great read. Unbelievable amount of photos.
Thanks for mentioning my website LostFlights. One correction, the airport Flight 3 departed from in Las Vegas was known as McCarran Field (now Nellis AFB). Thanks for remembering this accident 80 years ago.
Thank you.
The Pioneer has been playing that story for decades, but there is simply no evidence to suggest Gable spent any time at the Saloon. Gable spent a majority of his time at the Las Vegas El Rancho under the watch of MGM Studio Execs Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. No way would have had Gable in a public setting like a saloon. In addition, there is no media (newspaper) accounts of Gable in the Pioneer Saloon. The Press was crawling all over Goodsprings and if Gable was in the Pioneer drinking and smoking cigars it would have been in every newspaper. The story is simply a myth to bring in tourists.
I think it was called Lockheed Air Terminal in those days. It was the primary airport for Los Angeles.
Yes, it was. Previously Union Air Terminal, renamed in 1940, and before that, United Airport.
The sister ship of the accident airplane (NC1946) is Douglas DC-3 NC1945, which is currently in the closed Airline History Museum at the old Kansas City Municipal Airport. Museum volunteers specifically looked for an authentic TWA DC-3 to restore and found NC1945, which is almost ready for flight (save for some airworthy engines). Hope the problems of hangar rent get resolved so the museum can fly NC1945 again.
Yes, so do we.