The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-28
SEVEN KILLED, 9
HURT In CRASH
OF LARGE PLANE
CONTINUED From Page One)

Rescue crews didn't find the
wreckage until about dawn after
passengers Jesse Rosenfeld of New
Orleans and N. Nansell Of tn e
Bronx made their painful way to
farm homes and t h n to tele-
phones, the latter being guided by
a dog.
While doctors still worked ovel
the injured in Atlanta hospitals
and undertakers tried to identify
pajama-clad bodies, the tragedy
echoed in the capitol at Wash
ington where one of the dead had
been serving as democratic rep.
resentative from Maryland's sixth
district.
Senator Clark D.-Mo) said his
special committee to investigate
airplane accidents would make
prompt inquiry into the mishap.
He added criticism of congress for
permitting reorganization of th'
Civil Aeronautics Authority chang
ing it from an independent unit to
a subdivision of the Commerce de-
partment.
Riekenbacker Pinned In
Still pinned in the cabin when
rescuers clambered into the broken
hull was Rickenbacker, No. l
American ace pilot in the World
war and present president of EAL.
Left hip broken, several ribs
smashed, heae gashed, he still was
conscious, had been shouting warn
ings to shivering passengers out
gasoline-soaked wreckage be
wrapped in fire, avoided on i'm
pact by the pilots last minute
turning off of ignition switches.
Taken to Piedmont hospital, he
was given slightly better than an
even chance. His wife drove to
Atlanta over slippery highways
from Charlotte, N C. where she
had been visiting.
Rickenbacker's hip fracture,
Mrs. Rickenbacker said. was a re-
break of an old injury he received
in auto racing days. 1t was first
reported that his leg was broken,
but x-rays proved otherwise.
A pint of blood plasma w s
rushed later today to Rickenback-
er's physicians from a store kept
at the Georgia Baptist hospital.
Physicians explained the plasma
could be used for TRANSMISSION with
out typing or matching Ricken-
hackers blood.
Also listed as seriously hurt at
Piedmont was H. A. Littledale, as
sistant managing editor of the New
York Time. who was en- route
from his Short Hills, N. j., home
to Mexico for vacation. Mrs.
Littledale, who is editor of Par
ents' magazine, also was in seri-
Gus condition at Crawford Long
hospital.
Pinned under wreckage and a
tree, rain-soaked and in pain, she
still urged rescuers to look to 9TH
ers before releasing her.
Dead with Byron and Captain
Perry were Co-pilot L. E Thomas,
Steward Clarence Moore, both OF
New York; +. Leibowitz. Atlanta;
Juan Maria, San Salvador, Cen
trail America; B. c. M. Van der
Hoop of Scarsdale, N Y, vice
president of the Tin Processing
corporation of New York
EAL attendants were unable to
explain why the big Douglas plane,
which had been in service only a
few months, was low enough to
have struck the trees during a
left bank when it should have had
about 300 feet altitude at that point
in its swing from and to .,le field.
They said the ship was on the
course and at about the usual point
for turning about to return to the
port. l
Flopped on its back, two rubber
tired landing wheels still attached,
the huge sleeper was chopped into
ragged mess. One motor ripped
loose from it's moorings and
dropped hundred feet away from
the body. Wings splintered or
crumpled
The passenger compartment
walls gripped the victims securely
for hours until rescuers forced
their way inside.
The terrain where the ship came
down is rough, land OF red clay
and cotton patches brok n by
clumps of pine and poplar. 1t is
in the heart of the country of
Tara" locale for much of Mar
garet Mitchell's Gone With the
Wind"
AS survivors pooled their stories
tonight, they joined in tribute to
Captain Rickenbacker. Badly in
jured and in pain, aware that guam
titles of high test gasoline had
been spread about the wreckage
from the planes tanks, Ricken-
hacker kept warning:
Don't strike match. It'll ex-
plode the gasoline.
dater in the day, an onlooker
dropped match into pool OF
gasoline and only the quick action
of an Atlanta fireman standing by
with an extinguisher saved h e
wreckage from fire.)'
The airnan tried to console his
companions throughout the hours
of waiting.
Take it easy boys, let's not get
excited" he urged and passengers
reported several times he told
| them.