On a moonless night in September 1962, during a routine flight to Germany, three of the four engines of Flying Tiger flight 923 burst into flames, one after another. John Murray, the pilot of the stricken Constellation, would not have long before his plane with 76 souls on board crashed into 20-foot waves at 120 mph, at night in the middle of a raging North Atlantic storm somewhere nearly 600 miles west of the Irish coast.
The nation was fascinated by the story of the airliner lost in the North Atlantic at night when it crashed in 19xx.The world was fascinated by the story of the airliner lost in the North Atlantic when it crashed in 1962.
As the four flight attendants donned life vests, collected sharp objects, and explained how to brace for the ferocious impact, 68 passengers clung to their seats. There were elementary schoolchildren from Hawaii, a teenage newlywed from Germany, a disabled Normandy vet from Cape Cod, an immigrant from Mexico, and 30 recent graduates of the 82nd Airborne’s Jump School. They all expected to die.
