TWA Flight 3 crash site

TWA Flight 3 was a twin-engine Douglas DC-3-382 propliner, registration NC1946, operated by Transcontinental and Western Air as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York, New York, to Burbank, California, via Indianapolis, Indiana; St. Louis, Missouri; Albuquerque, New Mexico and Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 16, 1942, at 19:20 PST, 15 minutes after takeoff from Las Vegas Airport (now Nellis Air Force Base) bound for Burbank, the aircraft slammed into a sheer cliff on Potosi Mountain, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of the airport, at an elevation of 7,770 ft (2,370 m) above sea level, and was destroyed.

All nineteen passengers on board, including movie star Carole Lombard and her mother, and all three crew members, died in the crash.

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and determined it was caused by a navigation error by the captain.