Braniff International Flight 352

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker in Navarro County has recorded about Braniff International Flight 352. May 3, 1968. A Friday afternoon in Texas.

A four-engine propjet-powered Lockheed L-188 Electra II — that's a serious piece of machinery — lifts off from Houston's Hobby Airport at 4:11 in the afternoon. Braniff International Flight 352, bound ultimately for Memphis, Tennessee, with stops planned in Dallas, Tulsa, Fort Smith, and Little Rock. Eighty passengers.

Five crew members. Everything, at that moment, is routine. Twenty-three minutes into the flight, routine ends.

The aircraft is approaching an area of developing and intensifying thunderstorms. Now, the crew has been notified — notified — that other flights are deviating east to get around the weather. They make a different call.

They decide to descend and deviate to the west. It's a decision that will define everything that follows. At 4:47 p.m., Flight 352 encounters severe weather.

Hail. The kind of storm that doesn't negotiate. The crew begins a 180-degree turn, trying to get out.

And that's when the plane begins to roll, nose pitched down. A roll recovery maneuver is initiated — the crew is fighting it — but the right wing fails. Then the tail section.

The aircraft breaks in half. At 4:51 p.m., Fort Worth air traffic control reports the plane missing from radar. Four minutes.

That's how fast it all happens. The wreckage comes down near Dawson, Texas. And the people of Dawson — ordinary folks, neighbors — they are first on the scene.

Many of them witness it directly. The marker doesn't soften that word: horrific. Eighty passengers and five crew members are lost.

On June 19, 1969, the National Transportation Safety Board issues its official accident report. The determined cause: passage into a known area of severe weather. But here's where the story doesn't end in grief alone.

The crash and the investigation that followed led to updated safety and training programs, new operational procedures, and new federal regulations — specifically addressing how pilots use radar to avoid storms. Changes that reach into every cockpit, every flight, from that point forward. Eighty-five lives lost near a small Texas town called Dawson.

And the aviation industry, changed because of it. That's the weight the marker carries — and now, so do you.

What the marker says

The tragic crash of Braniff International Flight 352 traveling from Houston's Hobby Airport to Dallas' Love Field in 1968 left a lasting influence on Braniff, the citizens of Dawson and the aviation industry. Flight 352 originated at Houston with a final destination of Memphis, Tennessee, with intermediate stops scheduled in Dallas, Tulsa, Fort Smith and Little Rock. The four-engine propjet-powered Lockheed L-188 Electra II airliner departed Houston on May 3, 1968, at 4:11 p.m. for the flight to Dallas. Twenty-three minutes into the flight, the aircraft approached an area of developing and intensifying thunderstorms. Attempting to bypass the storm, the crew decided to descend and deviate to the west, despite being notified that other flights were deviating east. At 4:47 p.m., Flight 352 encountered severe weather, including hail, and began to make a 180 degree turn. At that time, the plane began to roll with the nose pitched down. A roll recovery maneuver was initiated but the right wing failed, then the tail section, causing the plane to break in half. At 4:51 p.m., Fort Worth air traffic control reported the plane missing from radar. The citizens of Dawson were first on the scene to offer assistance. Many witnessed the horrific event that claimed the lives of 80 passengers and five crew members. On June 19, 1969, the National Transportation Safety Board issued the official accident report which determined that passage into a known area of severe weather was the cause. The crash and investigation led to an update of safety and training programs and operational procedures, as well as new federal regulations to address how pilots use radar to avoid storms, all making air travel safer. (2019)