1970s Georgia plane crashes near Atlanta

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AJC archival photos: 1970s Georgia plane crashes

In 1970, metro Atlantans were shocked when a chartered airplane carrying real estate buyers to Florida crashed into a car on then-new I-285

May 30, 1970 -- Six persons died and 30 others were injured when a twin-engine private plane, Lehigh Acres Development Inc. Flight 701, crashed on a bridge over I-285 in Atlanta. The line on the photo charts the plane's path as it hit the car on the interstate, bounced and skidded into the ramp of the Moreland Ave. bridge. The victims' car is visible above the cross at right, the aircraft's tail section, an engine and a wing are near the point of impact. Read the 1970 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

May 30, 1970 -- The plane was carrying passengers on a free excursion trip to Florida to look at real estate when it started having trouble with both engines. The crew radioed that it had an emergency situation and, while trying to make its way to the Atlanta Airport, decided to land on the median strip of I-285. Parts of the aircraft broke up and came to rest on the Moreland Avenue bridge over the highway. Read the 1970 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

May 30, 1970 -- Four members of one family and a neighbor traveling in a car on I-285 were killed when Flight 701 hit their car and one aircraft passenger died as well. Thirty others on the plane, including the pilots and a flight attendant, were injured. In its report, the NTSB determined that improper fueling led to the loss of engine power, which the board cited as the probable cause for the crash.Read the 1970 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 6, 1977, Air view of crash site -- This is the community of New Hope, Ga., where a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed April 4, lookng north on Highway 29. It is the path the plane took when it crashed. The Amoco station where the plane clipped off a pole is the large white building on the right, in the center. Newman's Grocery, where the plane struck the gasoline pumps and a car, is in the upper third of the left of the highway. The scattered wreckage of the plane in a house yard is the triangular shaped object near the top on the left of the highway. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 - A worker searches through the wreckage of a Southern Airways DC-9 that crashed on a highway in New Hope, Ga., on April 4, 1977, killing 63 people aboard and nine on the ground. Eighteen people survived the crash. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- Closeup of the mangled wreckage of Flight 242. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 1977 -- The DC-9 ended its ill-fated flight in a pile of rubble in front of the Burkhalter home off Ga. 92 Spur in New Hope. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- A worker searches through the wreckage of Southern Airways Flight 242. Among those killed on the flight was R&B singer Annette Snell, an Atlanta resident, who hit No. 19 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1973 with "You Oughta' Be Here With Me." Snell, who was married to Pete Jackson of the band A Touch of Class, was 32. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- Flight 242 entered a thunderstorm upon descent from cruising, encountering such intense hail that the craft's windshield was broken. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- The crash of Southern Airways Flight 242 stands as Georgia's worst air disaster. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- A plaque memorializing the disaster was placed in the spot where the plane came down. But too many years have passed, too many weeds grown up. The plaque -- the only lasting memorial to the crash -- is nowhere to be found now. (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- A worker painstakingly sifts through sharp debris in search of evidence at the crash site. In a 2002 interview with the AJC, Dr. Greg Wehunt, working as a pharmacist in Dallas, Ga. at the time of the disaster, said of the plane crash casualties arriving at the small Paulding Memorial Hospital emergency room, "There was blood from the door of that ER all the way back." (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- A worker searches through the wreckage of the plane. Many who now live nearby have never heard of the Southern Airways Flight 242 crash. The area is starting to see suburbs sprout up as metro Atlanta continues to grow out. (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- The crash and fire also killed nine people on the ground --- walking along the highway, waiting in a car at a gas station or just coming out of their homes to see what the noise was. (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- Terry Frey, who was 6 when the crash happened, recalled seeing debris and firetrucks for days afterward as his school bus passed by on a nearby road. (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 5, 1977 -- It could have been worse, Frey said. The pilot managed to get the plane mostly on the highway, missing houses in the community. (Text by Christopher Quinn / AJC Staff) Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 4, 1977 - This victim of the Southern Airways crash in New Hope, Ga. was being transferred from Kennestone Hospital in Cobb County to Grady Memorial Hospital's Burn Center in downtown Atlanta. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 1978 -- Mrs. James Lamp, current owner of the Burkhalter home, works in the yard where Southern Airways Flight 242 ended its ill-fated flight in a pile of rubble in front of the former Burkhalter home off the Ga. 92 Spur in New Hope on April 4, 1977. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

June 7, 1977 -- Flight attendant Sandy Purl testifies at the National Transportation Safety Board in Atlanta about the Southern Airways crash. Purl and the other flight attendant on Flight 242, Catherine Lemoine Cooper, were commended by the NTSB for quick action in alerting passengers that the plane was about to crash, initiating emergency pre-crash procedures and assisting in evacuating passengers from the burning plane after the accident. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

June 6, 1977 -- New Hope Ga. fire chief John Clayton speaks at a press conference after the crash of Southern Airways Flight 242. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

April 2, 1987, New Hope, Ga. -- Clarence Poole stands in his nearly treeless yard, which before the April 4, 1977, Southern Airways plane crash had been a pine thicket. Read the 1978 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

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May 30, 1970 -- Six persons died and 30 others were injured when a twin-engine private plane, Lehigh Acres Development Inc. Flight 701, crashed on a bridge over I-285 in Atlanta. The line on the photo charts the plane's path as it hit the car on the interstate, bounced and skidded into the ramp of the Moreland Ave. bridge. The victims' car is visible above the cross at right, the aircraft's tail section, an engine and a wing are near the point of impact. Read the 1970 NTSB crash report (.PDF format) | Latest news on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

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