The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-01-23
II KILLED IN
CHASTITY AIR
PLANE WRECK
Bodies Are So Cut And Broken
That families Can Hardly
Make Identification
rs WORST IN u. S. HISTORY

luxurious transcontinental air
liner which carried its human car
go of II to death baffied Federal
and company officials seeking to
clear up the mystery of the crash.
Out of the morass of an east Ar
kansas swamp near the little town
of Goodwin, Ark, weary volunteer
searchers gathered up the broken
bodies of the ID passengers and
crew of three killed when the twin
motored plane sagged into the
marsh woods and tore through
heavy growth of trees for 400 yards
last week.
It was not an easy task, in the
gumbo-mud of the swamp, full of
boys holding water four to five feet
deep.
Heads of the American Air Lines,
operating the ship on regular sched-
ule between New York and Los
Angeles, and representatives of the
Department of Commerce said
there would be complete investi-
CATION"
They had little to work on, how
ever, in view of the destruction of
the plane and the fact that none of
the occupants-a typical cross
section of well-to-do America-sur-
vived.
Lake Litt1ejohn, commerce de-
partment attache, said informally
he believed the cause of the crash
could not be established.
Hard To Identify Victims
Bodies of the victims of the
worst air line disaster in the ma
tons history were moved by
stretcher, mule team and hearse to
a Memphis, Tenn, funeral chapel.
''The II bodies are in, 'said Frank
Thompson, the director, "but the
relatives will have to identify their
own dead. Even that is going to be
difficult. In all my 40 years as an
undertaken, I have never seen any
thing like it."
Two Men See Crash 9
The plane crashed into the
swamp at about 1880 o'clock one
night last week, less than 80 min
utes after leaving Memphis on the
scheduled 55-minute hop from
Memphis to Little Rock.
Pilot Marshall radioed that all
was well and conditions favorable
at 7:18 and thereafter the ship was
swallowed up in silence.
Two farmers who testified at the
inquest told of seeing the ship sail
low over the woods with motor
"that didn't sound right" They
saw it disappear into the trees and
helped to organize the hunt which
resulted in finding of the wreck at
midnight.
The coroner's verdict was simply
that the II aboard died "by acct
dental plane crash"
Fog May Be Cause
While commerce department Of
ficials went about their all day in
spection of the wreckage, inhabi-
tants of the area expressed the
opinion that low lying fog, for
which that territory is noted, may
have contributed to the disaster.
They theorized that Pilot Mar
shall may have encountered troub-
lie, flew into the fog, and crashed
into the tree tops while seeking
field for a forced landing.
Souvenir hunters invaded the
scene after removal of the victims,
carrying off various parts of the
wreckage. Special highway patrol
men directed traffic through the
section during the day. Officers re-
ported some of the victims appar-
emily had been robbed.
One of the first to reach the scene
of the disaster, Fry said he saw an
unidentified man seize what ap-
peared to be a large roll of bills
from the pocket of one of the VIC
tins, then flee through the marsh
country.
81 would have shot at him." de-
clared Fry, "but was afraid of hit
ting some one else in the dark"
Officers reported finding of empty
pocketbooks of dead passengers on
the ground.
Little Rock postal officers gather
ed up what they could of the mail
scattered over the countryside, and
said they believed all of it had been
ir7i,o of