Statuts:	Enquête Officielle
Date:	25 AOU 1946
Heure:	22:10
Type/Sous-type:	Douglas C-47A-80-DL
Compagnie:	American Airlines
Immatriculation:	NC88826
Numéro de série:	19776
Année de Fabrication:	1944
Heures de vol:	3462
Moteurs:	2 Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92
Equipage:	victimes: 2 / à bord: 2
Passagers:	victimes: 0 / à bord: 0
Total:	victimes: 2 / à bord: 2
Dégats de l'appareil:	Perte Totale
Conséquences:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Lieu de l'accident:	8 km (5 milles) WSW of Ashland, MS (Etats-Unis d'Amérique)
Phase de vol:	En cours de manoeuvre (MNV)
Nature:	Entrainement
Aéroport de départ:	Memphis Municipal Airport, TN (MEM/KMEM), Etats-Unis d'Amérique
Aéroport de destination:	Memphis Municipal Airport, TN (MEM/KMEM), Etats-Unis d'Amérique
Numéro de vol:	26

Détails:
The DC-3, named "Flagship Tulsa" was scheduled for a routine training flight of approximately three hours duration in the Memphis area at an altitude of 4,000 feet. The aircraft departed Memphis Municipal Airport at 21:10. Nothing more was heard from the flight. It appeared that the DC-3 had crashed into the ground at high speed and in an extremely nose-low attitude. As a result of the investigation of this accident, it appears that the aircraft, for reasons not determined, entered an unusual attitude from which recovery was not completed. Recovery in this instance may have been complicated by unsecured ballast or defective instruments, or both.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the loss of control of the aircraft during an unusual attitude. Neither the reason for the initial loss of control nor the reason for the pilot's failure to recover has been determined."

Sources:
» Air Britain Casualty compendium (pt. 43)
» CAB File No. 5181-46