Episode 7 – The Lovettsville Air Disaster and lightning strikes on planes

Episode 7 – The Lovettsville Air Disaster and lightning strikes on planes

Strap in this week, because its all about lightning. We’re looking at one crash in particular, the Lovettsville Air Disaster which took place on August 31 1940 near the town of Lovettsville in Virginia, the United States. There were 21 passengers and 4 crew on board and all 25 died in the accident, including U.S. Senator Ernest Lundeen from Minnesota. As you’ll hear, his death was regarded as extremely sinister because he was under FBI investigation at the time. But we’ll get to that in a while. The plane was a brand new Douglas DC-3A operated by Pennsylvania Central Airlines. It was flying through an intense thunderstorm at 6,000 feet en route from Washington to Detroit. The journey for the doomed passengers and crew had started in Washington and there was a planned stopover in Pittsburgh but the plane took off late due to thunderstorm activity around Washington. Numerous witnesses reported seeing a large flash of lightning shortly before it nosed over and plunged to earth in an alfalfa field. With limited accident investigation tools at the time, it was at first believed that the most likely cause was the plane flying into windshear, but the Civil Aeronautics Board report concluded that the probable cause was a lightning strike. "Trip 19", as it was designated, was under the command of Captain Lowell V. Scroggins with First Officer J. Paul Moore. The pilot and copilot had over eleven thousand and six thousand hours experience respectively, although only a few hundred of those hours were on DC-3s. A new airline employee was flying in the third seat between the two pilots called the jump seat. He’d only just been hired on August 26th.

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Episode 44 - The Curious Case of Captain Button and the Pink Porn Kamikaze Pilot

Episode 44 - The Curious Case of Captain Button and the Pink Porn Kamikaze Pilot

Welcome back to Plane Crash Diaries with me, your host and pilot, Des Latham. Episode 44 and we’re exploring more bizarre stories of pilot suicide with the tragedy of A10 Captain Craig Button and the ...

1 Maj 18min

Episode 43 - Lithium on Board: UPS Flight 6 and the Battery Threat Airlines Fear Most

Episode 43 - Lithium on Board: UPS Flight 6 and the Battery Threat Airlines Fear Most

This is episode 43, and I thought instead of taking a closer look at the plethora of pilot suicides, another topic is heating up fast. The dangers of lithium-based batteries, lithium polymers, now pla...

9 Feb 28min

Episode 42 - General Aviation Training Accidents BC/AC (Before Covid/After Covid)

Episode 42 - General Aviation Training Accidents BC/AC (Before Covid/After Covid)

This is episode 42, and we’re diving into a particular category of aviation accidents — those that happen right at the beginning of a pilot’s journey. We’re talking about ab initio training mishaps. A...

9 Aug 202523min

Episode 41 - Dangerous Dalliances: EgyptAir 804 nicotine addiction & Aeroflot 821 intoxication

Episode 41 - Dangerous Dalliances: EgyptAir 804 nicotine addiction & Aeroflot 821 intoxication

Episode 41 is about substance abuse, technocrats behaving badly, sub-standard crew training and fatal attractions to nicotine and C H 3 C H 2 OH — methylethyl alcohol, otherwise known as hootch, or in...

23 Dec 202427min

Episode 40 - Shoddy Maintenance and blown screens

Episode 40 - Shoddy Maintenance and blown screens

Episode 40 is about maintenance blunders. Aviation is littered with a long list of these, sometimes it the failure of unofficial parts, sometimes its poor management, sometimes engineers who cut corne...

22 Aug 202423min

Episode 39 - Deadly delays during Ramadan as Saudia Airlines Flight 163 crew dawdles

Episode 39 - Deadly delays during Ramadan as Saudia Airlines Flight 163 crew dawdles

This is episode 39 and we’re looking at a horrendous accident, Saudia Airlines Flight 163, a Lockheed TriStar which was gutted in a blaze on the ground on 19th August 1980 - all 301 aboard died. Th...

19 Juni 202414min

Episode 38 - Newark Airport’s “umbrella of death” and Jimmy Doolittle’s clear ways

Episode 38 - Newark Airport’s “umbrella of death” and Jimmy Doolittle’s clear ways

This episode we’re going to take a look at commercial airliners that have hit obstacles near runways and how three accidents in the small town of Elizabeth New Jersey in 1951 and 1952 led to rules abo...

6 Feb 202420min

Episode 37 - Sharing the skies:  A short history of bird strikes and improved safety

Episode 37 - Sharing the skies: A short history of bird strikes and improved safety

This is episode 37 and we’re dealing with bird strikes. The most famous of these was US Airways flight 1549 from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte. Pilot Sully Sullenberger and first off...

4 Dec 202322min

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