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On this day, December 13, 1977, Air Indiana Flight 216 crashed.
I keep reading this as "Air India" and wondering why I had posted this. Then I take a closer look.
There were no survivors. One member of the team was not on the aircraft. He was the only member of the team left alive. Then something almost unimaginable happened.
Air Indiana Flight 216
Accident
Date: 13 December 1977
Summary: rudder and right aileron control locks not removed before takeoff
Site: Evansville Regional Airport, Indiana, United States
Aircraft type: Douglas DC-3
Operator: Air Indiana
Registration: N51071
Passengers: 26
Crew: 3
Fatalities: 29
Survivors: 0
The Air Indiana Flight 216 crash occurred on December 13, 1977, at 19:22 CST, when a Douglas DC-3, registration N51071 carrying the University of Evansville basketball team, crashed on takeoff at the Evansville Regional Airport in Evansville, Indiana. The aircraft lost control and crashed shortly after lift-off. The plane was on its way to Nashville International Airport, taking the team to play the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the crash on the pilot's failure to remove gust locks on the right aileron and the rudder before takeoff, as well as an overloaded baggage compartment. The NTSB report said that the plane might have been able to stay airborne had only one of the problems existed. As it was, the extra baggage shifted the plane's center of gravity to the back end, and the locked rudder and aileron made it impossible to control the overweight aircraft.
The only member of the Purple Aces who did not die in the crash was 18-year-old freshman David Furr; he was out for the season with an ankle injury and thus was not on the plane that day. But just two weeks after the crash, Furr and his younger brother Byron were killed in a car accident near Newton, Illinois, leaving the entire 1977 Evansville team dead.
A memorial has been constructed at the University of Evansville known as the "Weeping Basketball." On stone slabs are engraved the names of the players who were killed, including Furr. (The final name on the monument is that of Charles Goad of the Goad Equipment Company, invited on the flight by his friend Bob Hudson.) Also engraved is an excerpt from the eulogy delivered by school president Wallace Graves at a memorial service: "Out of the agony of this hour we will rise."
{snip}
Accident
Date: 13 December 1977
Summary: rudder and right aileron control locks not removed before takeoff
Site: Evansville Regional Airport, Indiana, United States
Aircraft type: Douglas DC-3
Operator: Air Indiana
Registration: N51071
Passengers: 26
Crew: 3
Fatalities: 29
Survivors: 0
The Air Indiana Flight 216 crash occurred on December 13, 1977, at 19:22 CST, when a Douglas DC-3, registration N51071 carrying the University of Evansville basketball team, crashed on takeoff at the Evansville Regional Airport in Evansville, Indiana. The aircraft lost control and crashed shortly after lift-off. The plane was on its way to Nashville International Airport, taking the team to play the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the crash on the pilot's failure to remove gust locks on the right aileron and the rudder before takeoff, as well as an overloaded baggage compartment. The NTSB report said that the plane might have been able to stay airborne had only one of the problems existed. As it was, the extra baggage shifted the plane's center of gravity to the back end, and the locked rudder and aileron made it impossible to control the overweight aircraft.
The only member of the Purple Aces who did not die in the crash was 18-year-old freshman David Furr; he was out for the season with an ankle injury and thus was not on the plane that day. But just two weeks after the crash, Furr and his younger brother Byron were killed in a car accident near Newton, Illinois, leaving the entire 1977 Evansville team dead.
A memorial has been constructed at the University of Evansville known as the "Weeping Basketball." On stone slabs are engraved the names of the players who were killed, including Furr. (The final name on the monument is that of Charles Goad of the Goad Equipment Company, invited on the flight by his friend Bob Hudson.) Also engraved is an excerpt from the eulogy delivered by school president Wallace Graves at a memorial service: "Out of the agony of this hour we will rise."
{snip}
In the 2020 thread, PoindexterOglethorpe said:
This:
The only member of the Purple Aces who did not die in the crash was 18-year-old freshman David Furr; he was out for the season with an ankle injury and thus was not on the plane that day. But just two weeks after the crash, Furr and his younger brother Byron were killed in a car accident near Newton, Illinois, leaving the entire 1977 Evansville team dead.
I replied:
That jumped out at me. It made me think of this: The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) "The Hitch-Hiker"
Source: https://www.famousfix.com/topic/the-twilight-zone-the-twilight-zone-the-hitch-hiker
Or the story of the appointment in Samarra:
"The Appointment in Samarra"
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])
The speaker is Death
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])
The speaker is Death
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
This is scary.
The Twilight Zone (Classic): The Hitch-Hiker - Terror Has A Form
6,395 views • Mar 21, 2019
The Twilight Zone
2.62K subscribers
Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) sees a mysterious Hitch-hiker (Leonard Strong) beckoning her to cross into what just might be... The Twilight Zone. Check back each Thursday for more Twilight Zone Classic videos. Stream The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access.
6,395 views • Mar 21, 2019
The Twilight Zone
2.62K subscribers
Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) sees a mysterious Hitch-hiker (Leonard Strong) beckoning her to cross into what just might be... The Twilight Zone. Check back each Thursday for more Twilight Zone Classic videos. Stream The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access.
Tue Nov 14, 2023: On this day, November 14, 1970, a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed near Huntington WV.
Tue Dec 13, 2022: On this day, December 13, 1977, Air Indiana Flight 216 crashed.
Sun Dec 13, 2020: On this day, December 13, 1977, Air Indiana Flight 216 crashed.
From Dennis Donovan:
Sat Nov 14, 2020: 50 Years Ago Today; Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in WV. "We Are Marshall"