Eastern Air Lines Flight 21
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | February 26, 1941 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Morrow, GA, near Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| Passengers | 13 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 8 |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 8 |
| Survivors | 8 |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
| Operator | Eastern Air Lines |
| Registration | NC28394 |
| Flight origin | LaGuardia Airport, New York |
| 1st stopover | Washington Hoover Airport |
| 2nd stopover | Candler Field, Atlanta, Georgia |
| 3rd stopover | Moisant Field, New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Last stopover | Houston Municipal Airport, Houston, Texas |
| Destination | Brownsville, Texas |
Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, registration NC28394, was a Douglas DC-3 aircraft that crashed while preparing to land at Candler Field (now Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 26, 1941. Eight of the 16 on board were killed including Maryland Congressman William D. Byron. Among the injured was Eastern Air Lines president and World War I hero Eddie Rickenbacker.
Flight 21 departed New York City's LaGuardia Airport on the evening of February 26, stopping briefly at Washington Hoover Airport before departing at 9:05 PM Eastern Time for Atlanta. After Atlanta, it was scheduled to stop at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, before ending its trip at Brownsville, Texas, on the morning of the 27th. At 11:38 PM Central Time, the aircraft called the Eastern Air Lines operator in Atlanta to advise that it had passed over the Stone Mountain reporting point and was descending. The operator provided the pilots with the altimeter setting for Candler Field and with the current weather. Flight 21 then contacted the Atlanta control tower twice, first to advise that it was making an approach and then to advise that the aircraft was over the Atlanta range station two miles southeast of the airport at an altitude of 1,800 feet (550 m). Eastern's company operator then contacted the flight to suggest a straight-in approach; the aircraft acknowledged the transmission, but nothing further was heard. The wreckage was found in a pine grove five miles southeast of the Atlanta Range station just after 6:30 AM. Rescuers found a number of survivors still alive in the wreckage, including Eastern Air Lines President Eddie Rickenbacker, who had suffered a dented skull, other head injuries, shattered left elbow and crushed nerve, paralyzed left hand, several broken ribs, a crushed hip socket, twice-broken pelvis, severed nerve in his left hip, and a broken left knee. Most shocking, his left eyeball was expelled from the socket. He recovered from these after months in the hospital, and regained full eyesight.
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