PLANE CRASHES INTO STORE.

68 KILLED, 27 INJURED AS DC9 JET ENGINES FAIL.

New Hope, Ga. (UPI) -- A Southern Airways DC9 jet, with both engines dead and the pilot desperately trying to make an emergency landing on a twolane highway, crashed and exploded Monday in a fierce hailstorm.
Sixty-eight persons were killed and 27 others were injured when the plane smashed into a grocery store and several cars before exploding in a vacant lot.
Lt. RAYMOND McDERMID of the Georgia State Patrol, who set up a command post at the crash scene in this suburb 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, said all the bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at a nearby warehouse. He said about 30 bodies had been identified.
Federal investigators, who began examining the wreckage this morning, said there is evidence that hail damaged the jet engines and windshield of the ill-fated plane.
There were 85 passengers and crew aboard when the plane came in for its aborted crashlanding. The big ship rared[sic] down the highway for some 300 feet, plowed through the store, smashed several cars and sheared off telephone poles and trees before the broken craft came to a halt.
The plane, Flight 242 from Huntsville and Muscle Shoals, Ala., to Atlanta, developed trouble after running into a hailstorm outside Atlanta.
DR. DARIUS SMITH, who treated both stewardesses at a hospital, said the women told him that hail began smashing against the windows of the plane with "terrible noises," and then the craft lost power.
Many residents of this community of 1,400, where 4,000 Union soldiers were killed in one of the bloodiest battles of Gen. William T. Sherman's march of Atlanta, witnessed the disaster.
"It sounded like a tornado and I screamed for everyone to run and I looked back down the highway and here come a jet plane," said MRS. MARY CLAYTON, who was working in her yard when the airliner came out of a squall at 4:20 p.m. EST.
"It was breaking apart all down the road," she said. "It was throwing pieces up in the air and they were exploding."
The pilot, Capt. WILLIAM W. McKENZIE, 54, of Laplace, La., swooped low over the New Hope Elementary School and guided the crippled craft down the narrow highway. McKENZIE died in the wreckage.
"He did a miraculous thing," Sheriff BOB SHIPP said. "He did all he could and probably lost his life doing it. He had his mind and thoughts with the people on that plane."
The plane disintegrated as it skidded down the highway. The fuselage tumbled end over end, then exploded.
"We actually seen the fuselage slipping, the wings disintegrating and bodies going through the air," said JOHN CLAYTON, chief of the New Hope Volunteer Fire Department, who saw the crash from his yard.
"It was a big ball of flame," said JAMES HIGDON, who witnessed the crash from the front porch of his house. "I started running through the woods but by the time we got over there it was burning too bad for anybody to get out. There was people hurt all over the place. We helped get a few out. They was burned real bad."
When firemen finally extinguished the flames, the largest single piece of debris was the overturned tail section.
FREDERICK CLEMENS, 18, a passenger from Wilmington, Del., escaped with burns over 20 per cent of his body.
"We were flying through a hailstorm and I guess the hailstones clogged up the engine or something. And after that we had three or four minutes of unpowered flight with both the jet engines blown, and we coasted down to a forced landing," he said. "All I remember was when we started hitting, it was getting rougher."
Authorities were unable to determine how many persons on the ground were killed or injured by the plane's debris.
Sheriff SHIPP said 59 bodies were in a makeshift morgue near Dallas, the Paulding County seat. Hospitals in the area reported 12 persons dead.
The sheriff said two of the dead were townspeople and three other New Hope residents were missing, "but they may be in a hospital or they may be in the woods. We don't known."
The plane apparently developed trouble while approaching Atlanta for a landing.
"The pilot was talking to the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center and reported a windshield failure and one engine flamed out," said JACK BARKER of the Federal Aviation Administration. "And then he reported the flameout of the second engine. He then switched to the Atlanta tower and said he would try to set it down on a road."

Crash Scene Described
New Hope, Ga. (UPI) -- A car and a truck were mashed flat, as if some giant had stepped on them.
The vehicles had been in the path of the Southern Airways jet as it tried to crash-land on a narrow highway at this small Civil War battle site Monday.
The DC9 had smashed the vehicles, sheared a gas pump at NEWMAN'S grocery and service station and disintegrated in a vacant lot.
The scene today was a shambles of strewn luggage, plane seats and other debris. Hours after the crash rescuers worked under floodlights in a driving rain in search of possible victims. A Red Cross unit dispensed coffee and sandwiches to the workers.
Many residents of New Hope, an Atlanta suburb of 1,400, said they were dazed by the tragedy.
JOHN CLAYTON, chief of the New Hope Volunteer Fire Department, had been one of the first rescuers to reach the wreckage. The first person he saw was a stewardess, in full uniform and apparently unscratched, frantically waving her arms.
"Help us! Help us!" she pleaded with CLAYTON.
"I told my wife to take care of her," said CLAYTON, who looked about for other survivors. "One survivor was strapped in his seat and partially conscioius. His leg was missing."
CLAYTON had heard a loud road as the plane, both its jet engines dead, tried to land on a highway during a squall.
"I yelled 'Tornado,' and told my wife and kids to head for the cellar," he said. "Then I looked out the window and saw the plane's left wing hit the ground, when the right wing hit and the plane somersaulted."
The plane careened along the highway for 300 yards, clipping down telephone poles and trees, smashing a grocers store and demolishing several cars before disintegrating in the woods.
The town was the scene of one of Gen William T. Sherman's bloodiest battles in his march to Atlanta. Some 4,000 Union soldiers died in fighting at New Hope Church and Pickett's Mill.

Passenger Listing of Airliner Crash in New Hope, Georgia
WILLIAM MacKENZIE, Pilot.
LYMAN KEELE, JR., First Officer.
CATHERINE LEMOINE, Senior Stewardess.
SANDY WARD, Stewardess.
WAYNE ABERCROMBIE.
WALTER H. AMICK.
MARVIN O. BERGLIN.
GLENN F. BRADLEY.
EDWARD R. BROCK.
BERNARD BRYAN.
T. BOBBY CAMERON.
JERRY W. CAUSEY.
CALVIN H. CHILDRESS.
FREDERICK L. CLEMENS.
EDWIN N. COBB.
TOMMY COE.
GORDON B. COLEY.
LEE S. COLLIER.
WESLEY R. CORRICK.
ROBERT CUMMER.
RICHARD W. DARBY.
BOYDEN E. DAVIS, JR.
FRANK DAWSON.
PATRICIA DAWSON.
CLIFTON C. DAWSON.
JAMES FORTE.
DON FOSTER.
ROBERT M. FURNISS, JR.
SALLY FURNISS.
JOE GILES.
KAREN GILES.
HARRY C. GORDON.
WILLIAM F. GOUBEAUD, JR.
EARL C. GRIFFIN, JR.
EMILY GRIFFIN.
CECIL GRIFFIN.
BRUCE GROTH.
WILLIAM V. GUDAITIS.
HERMAN G. HAMBY.
WILLIAM C. HAVERKAMP, JR.
CHARLENE Y. HAVISTO.
HORACE K. HAY.
JOSEPH HECKL.
LEO F. HORNER.
PHILLIP A. INZINA.
EARL D. JOHNSON.
PETE J. KILGORE.
HOMER KITTS.
LELAND C. LAVENDER.
JEFFREY C. MAGNELL.
THOMAS M. MAZINGO.
HERMAN McCLURE.
ALTON V. MOBLEY.
CORRINE MORTON.
MASARU ORI.
DR. IRWIN E. PERLIN.
WILLIAM J. PERRYMAN.
JAMES L. PHILLIPS, JR.
IVAN D. POTTS, JR.
RICHARD PAVINELLI.
JAMES A. POWER.
LEE QUICK.
ROBERT F. REAMS.
WILLIAM M. REEVES.
KELSIE A. ROGERS.
EDWARD F. ROSLER.
ROBERT M. SANDERS.
RONALD T. SEAMAN.
AMY L. SEBASTIAN.
PHILLIP R. SHERRILL.
WARREN SINDORF.
JOSEPH SMITH.
ROMIE L. SMITH.
ANNETTA SNELL.
MARY TAXBOX.
JOHN TIELKING.
DAVID A. TWIST.
MILFORD D. WALDREP.
JOHN WALKER.
BABS WICKSELL.
BYRON WICKSELL.
GEORGE D. WILKINSON.
MICHAEL L. WILLIAMS.
JAMES W. WILLIAMSON.
RICHARD ZELEZNOK.

The Ruston Daily Leader Louisiana 1977-04-05

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!