Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 was an Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-9-31, carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew, operating as a scheduled flight from Charleston, South Carolina to Chicago, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte, North Carolina. On the morning of September 11, 1974, while conducting an instrument approach in dense ground fog into Douglas Municipal Airport (now called Charlotte/Douglas International Airport), Charlotte, North Carolina, the aircraft crashed just short of the runway, killing 71 on board. Thirteen people survived the initial impact, including the co-pilot and one flight attendant who walked away with no serious injuries; however, three more ultimately died from severe burn injuries. One of the initial survivors died of injuries 29 days after the accident. Among those who died were the father and two older brothers of future American comedian Stephen Colbert; Navy Rear Admiral Charles W. Cummings, acting commandant of the 6th Naval District; three executives of Charleston's The Post and Courier; WCIV (Sullivan's Island, South Carolina) television station anchorman Wayne Seal; and John Merriman, news editor for the CBS Evening News.
The accident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which released its final report on May 23, 1975. The NTSB concluded that the accident was caused by the flightcrew's lack of altitude awareness and poor cockpit discipline.
Read more about Eastern Air Lines Flight 212: Crash Investigation and Recommendations
Famous quotes containing the words eastern, air, lines and/or flight:
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But not luck
brought us here. By design
clear air and cold wind polish
the river lights, by design
we are to live now in a new place.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“GOETHE, raised o’er joy and strife,
Drew the firm lines of Fate and Life,
And brought Olympian wisdom down
To court and mar, to gown and town,
Stooping, his finger wrote in clay
The open secret of to-day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“it pleaseth me when I see through the meadows
The tents and pavilions set up, and great joy have I
When I see o’er the campana knights armed and horses arrayed.
And it pleaseth me when the scouts set in flight the folk with
their goods;
And it pleaseth me when I see coming together after them an host of
armed men.”
—Bertrans De Born (fl. 12th century)