![]() The plane was simply not built well enough to even remotely handle the impact from the pine trees at roughly 90 mph. The cockpit, tail, and wings completely ripped apart and the remaining cab lay desolate, in the shape of an L. Suffocating the people on the bottom from the sheer weight. All of the seats were ripped from the frame of the plane, landing in the front section of the crash. The only thing left was a trail of debris and people. Marc Frank remembers seeing complete and total despair. The Guillsberg, Missippi, crash site of the Convair CV-240. The fuselage turned sideways, and everybody was hurled forward.” The tail section broke off, the cockpit broke off and buckled underneath, then both wings broke off. It felt like being hit with baseball bats in a steel garbage can with the lid on. The plane finally slammed into the earth, and Billy Powell recalls saying, “We hit the trees at approximately 90 mph. With the tree tops approaching fast and just eight miles short of the air strip, the plane was headed for a Mississippi swamp and nothing could be done to save them now. Losing daylight, the pilots desperately looked for an open field or some kind of saving grace. Marc Frank recalled hearing both engines on the plane then within a matter of minutes, just air passing over the cabin. The pilots would have to make an emergency landing. Ronnie Van Zant, drunk and laying in the middle of the aisle, simply pulled himself together, sat up, and quietly chose a seat up front. It is reported that the pilots whose eyes were full of terror, told them to go back to their seats and prepare for impact. A costly mistake at 9,000ft or so.īand members Artimus Pyle and Billy Powell entered the cockpit to get an idea of what was happening. However, it is believed that the pilots were trying to transfer oil from one engine to another when they accidentally jettisoned the fuel instead. Some blame it on the plane’s age and poor design, weighing in on its smaller fuselage and compact wingspan. There is some speculation as to why the second engine had ultimately failed. ![]() Pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray were fully aware of a fuel shortage before the flight took off. Photo: hu. The Left Engine Would Fail, And The Plane Would Glide For Several Thousand Feet A Convair CV-240, similar to the one in the crash.
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