was an
Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-9-31 , carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew, operating as a scheduled flight from
Charleston, South Carolina to
Chicago, Illinois , with an intermediate stop in
Charlotte, North Carolina . On the morning of
September 11 ,
1974 , while conducting an
Instrument Approach in dense ground fog into Douglas Municipal Airport (now called
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport ), Charlotte, North Carolina, the aircraft crashed just short of the runway, killing 71 of the occupants. One of the 11 initial survivors died of injuries 29 days after the accident. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and resulting post-crash fire.
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The accident was investigated by the , May 23, 1975. Archived at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University . Retrieved
2007-04-22 . on
May 23 ,
1975 . In its report, the NTSB concluded that "the probable cause of the accident was the flightcrew's lack of altitude awareness at critical points during the approach due to poor cockpit discipline in that the crew did not follow prescribed procedures."
While investigating this accident, and reviewing the
Another possible cause of the crash discussed by the NTSB in its review of the CVR was that the crew was apparently trying to visually locate the Charlotte airport, while executing an instrument approach in the presence of low-lying fog. In addition, a persistent attempt to visually identify the nearby
Carowinds Amusement Park Observation Tower ,
23 known as "Carowinds Tower" to pilots, rising to 1,314 feet
MSL (340 feet
AGL ), may have further distracted and confused the flight crew. None of the required altitude callouts were made by the captain, which compounded the flight crew's near total lack of altitude awareness.
During the investigation the issue of the flammability of passengers' clothing materials came up. There was evidence that passengers who wore double-knit manmade fiber clothing articles sustained significantly worse burn injuries during the post-crash fire than passengers who wore articles made from natural fibers.
American comedian
Stephen Colbert 's father, James, and his two brothers, Paul and Peter, were killed in this crash. Stephen Colbert was 10 years old at the time.
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