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The Mountain and the Dc-3

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The Mountain and the Dc-3 SOME 75-YEARS AFTER THE EVENT, WE EXAMINE THE MYSTERY OF plane with a full comple- speculation and puzzlement, but to truly journey from Los Angeles to ment of passengers and begin this story, we have to go back a Indianapolis, Indiana, Lombard’s home the TWA FLIGHT 3 AND THE LOSS OF ACTRESS CAROLE crew slammed into the month prior — to December 1941. At state. The departure date was set for jagged northeast slope of the time, Carole Lombard was ranked as the 12th of January and returning to LOMBARD AND HER FELLOW PASSENGERS Potosi Mountain, 33-miles one of the nation’s most glamorous and Union Station in Los Angeles on southwest of Las Vegas. There gifted actresses. In the ten-years before Monday evening, the 19th. were no survivors. her death, Lombard made more money Accompanied by her mother and Mountain The passenger list included 15 mem- than her husband and was often the Winkler, the Lombard trio gathered at bers of the US Army Air Corps Ferrying highest paid screen star in Hollywood. Union Station and boarded Union Command and notably the wife of actor Following the attack on Pearl Pacific’s City of Los Angeles as sched- and Clark Gable, actress Carole Lombard Harbor and the declaration of war, a uled for their journey to Chicago and returning from a war bond rally in call to action went out. Clark Gable then on to Indianapolis. With stops the DC-3 Indianapolis. Travelling with Lombard was picked to head the Hollywood and appearances for the war effort was her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth “Bessie” Victory Committee. Wanting to do her along the way, they arrived in Peters, and Mr. Otto Winkler, Gable’s part to help with BY MICHAEL B. MCCOMB personal friend as well as his publicity the war effort, agent from MGM Studios. Ms. Lois Carole volun- Hamilton, not traveling with Lombard’s teered to go on a entourage, was listed as the fourth civil- fund raising drive ian passenger on the flight. The flight to help sell bonds crew consisted of Capt. Wayne C. for the treasury Williams, First Officer Morgan A. department. The Gillett, and Hostess Alice Getz. initial goal was For three-quarters of a century, the for Lombard to t was a cause of the accident has raise $500,000 on typical Friday remained a source of a round trip rail night and Las Vegas This 1942 TWA route map illustrates how the Iwas packed. The hot spots in airline was beginning to branch out. town were the Jazz, the Honolulu Inn and the Double O, as well as a dozen other clubs. The graceful lines of a DC-3 in TWA All were filled with markings are well represented in this tourists from Califor- view of NC17317. Delivered to the airline on11 June 1937, the aircraft was drafted into nia, construction the military as C-49F 42-56621 but it had a workers, and Army short life as it was destroyed in a collision with recruits. Many C-48B 42-56611 over Camp Williams, Wisconsin, on 24 June 1942. of the out-of- the nation was on edge. There McCarran Field en route to Burbank, town visi- were air raid drills, black-outs, and a California. Twenty-minutes later, the tors came series of new wartime regulations. The to Las lighted airway beacon system that Vegas for pilots relied on for years to aid in visual the gambling navigation at night incurred mandatory and entertainment. black-outs for fear that attacking The construction work- enemy aircraft would use the beacons ers — many left over from to guide their way to the major popu- the recent Hoover Dam project — lated coastal cities. remained in southern Nevada as Las The evening of 16 January 1942 was Vegas continued to expand, but for the still and dark on this clear moonless hundreds of soldiers, the recent declara- night with the weather having turned tion of war brought them to the brand brisk and cold. A recent winter storm new Las Vegas aerial gunnery school for brought fresh snow to the nearby training. Out on the Las Vegas Strip it Charleston Range, leaving several tall was no different, both resorts — the El peaks along the southwestern boundary Rancho Las Vegas and the Last Frontier of the Las Vegas Valley snowcapped. — were jammed with guests. The two At precisely seven-minutes past At the time, Carole Lombard was one of hotel-casinos between them were less 7:00 pm, a Douglas DC-3, operated by America’s most popular actresses and her The copilot calls “clear” before cranking the #2 Wright engine to life at Union Air Terminal in Burbank. The airline had been operating exploits were closely watched by an from Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, but decided to move to Burbank since the field was much larger. A press release noted, than a year apart. Transcontinental and Western Air American public starved for glamor in the “With TWA schedules added, a total of 40 transport planes will be flying every day in and out of Union Air Terminal, third busiest Despite this fun carefree atmosphere, (TWA) departed from Las Vegas midst of the Great Depression. commercial airport in the country. Only Chicago and Newark, air terminal for New York, exceed the local port in airline activity.” 20 AIR CLASSICS/March 2017 airclassicsnow.com 21.
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