Why did Flight 3 crash into Potosi Mountain? In 1942, there was no black box in the cockpit of airplanes. The only record of what might have happened was on paper in a logbook that was burned up in the crash.
The press release from David L. Behncke, the president of the Air Line Pilots Association, was quoted. In it, he pointed to a disturbing trend to "blame the pilot when he was dead and unable to defend himself or point an accusing finger at the actual cause or causes." (p. 298) This comment rings true for me as my father and brother died in a two-seat airplane piloted by my father.
The FBI investigated the possibility of sabotage. After Pearl Harbor and the Normandic (which was sabotaged by German operatives while docked at the port of New York), it seemed very feasible. There was a passenger Joseph Szigeti that came under investigation. He was connected with two fatal plane crashes which resulted in the deaths of Americans on Federal government business. There was no evidence found to prove sabotage or Szigeti's involvement.
Don Hackett, the pilot of the charter plane that brought Clark Gable to Vegas and the crash site, was interviewed in the 1980's. He stated that when he took off for the return trip to Burbank, he realized just how dangerous those mountains were.
Robert Matzen, Fireball's author, reported on many factors that probably played a role in the fate of Flight 3. The plane was at its maximum fly weight, heavy with passengers and their luggage. The plane was off course which ran it straight into the mountain. Why? The pilots could have been trying to shave a few minutes off of their flight plan. They were behind schedule. It was a quick climb out of the Vegas airport to avoid the mountains. The pilots had not flown out of that airport before and it was dark. Due to the black-out because of the threat of air strike, there were no beacons on the mountain. The flight plan for Flight 3 had recently been changed but had all the documents in the cockpit been updated? Pilots of that day 'flew by the seat of their pants.' They used landmarks and paper maps. The cockpit map of the area around that Vegas airfield folded in such a way that the mountains were on another side of a fold. In a cockpit of the DC-3, the pilots did not commonly unfold the entire map.
About three-fourths of the way through this book, I almost stopped reading it. I wanted to know more about Carole Lombard but a large part of this book is about the crash that took her life. At times, it was hard to read about the crash. I could relate to what Carole's husband, Clark Gable, was going through. I did appreciate the time and attention that the author gave to the other twenty-one people who lost their lives as well. Well written and informative, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Not 5 because it was a heavy, emotional read.
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