Status:	Final
Date:	04 NOV 1944
Time:	ca 17:30
Type:	Douglas DC-3-454
Operator:	Transcontinental & Western Air - TWA
Registration:	NC28310
C/n / msn:	4992
First flight:	1940
Total airframe hrs:	13167
Engines:	2 Wright G-100
Crew:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Passengers:	Fatalities: 21 / Occupants: 21
Total:	Fatalities: 24 / Occupants: 24
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	near Hanford, CA (United States of America)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	San Francisco Municipal Airport, CA (SFO/KSFO), United States of America
Destination airport:	Hollywood-Lockheed Air Terminal, CA (BUR/KBUR), United States of America
Flightnumber:	8

Narrative:
Flight 8 took off at 16:00, one hour behind schedule, and proceeded according to plan to a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet for Burbank on an instrument clearance. It reported over Fresno on schedule cruising at 10,000 feet and estimated Bakersfield at 17:35. Near Hanford, the plane was seen to enter a rapidly forming thunderstorm in cumulo-nimbus clouds. The DC-3 entered an inverted flying attitude, probably due to severe turbulence. The plane than broke up and crashed.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "On the basis of all the evidence available the Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the airplane's structure as a result of severe turbulence. An important contributing cause was the fact that the airplane was undoubtedly in an abnormal attitude of flight, i.e., inverted, at the instant of structural failure. The cause of the airplane becoming inverted has not been determined."

Sources:
» CAB File No. 3640-44
Sample newspaper article from Newspaperarchive.com