Los Angeles – Dallas – Little Rock – Memphis – New York

On February 10, 1944 at 11:36 PM, Los Angeles – Dallas – Little Rock – Memphis – New York experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-3, operated by American Airlines, with the event recorded near Memphis Tennessee.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

24 people were known to be on board, 24 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 21, passenger fatalities: 21, other fatalities: 0.

American Airlines Trip 2, on a regular transcontinental schedule from Los Angeles to New York City, while en route from Little Rock to Memphis, crashed in the Mississippi River 18 miles southwest of Memphis Airport about 2336LT. The 21 passengers and three crew members were fatally injured and the airplane was totally destroyed. The flight was observed to be at a normal altitude approximately 30 miles west of the scene of the crash. At a point 2 1/2 miles west of the scene, the plane was observed flying very low. How long it had been flying low between these two points could not be ascertained as there were no known witnesses to this portion of the flight. It approached and struck the river in an angle of descent of about 20 degree with the right wing slightly low. Impact with the water, submersion and the extremely difficult salvage operation caused an unusual degree of damage to the plane. Only 75% of the wreckage is estimated to have been recovered. These conditions materially limited the efforts of the Boards investigators.

Aircraft reference details include registration NC21767, MSN 2166, year of manufacture 1939.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 35.1460°, -90.0518°.