1947 Columbus mid-air collision
Delta Air Lines Douglas DC-3C and Tuskegee Aviation Institute Vultee BT-13 Valiant · Mid-air collision
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 9
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Aircraft 1 · Douglas DC-3C
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- NC49657
- Operator
- Delta Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Occupants
- 8
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Macon Airport, Macon, GeorgiaTo Columbus Airport (CSG)
Aircraft 2 · Vultee BT-13 Valiant
- Aircraft type
- Vultee BT-13
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- NC55312
- Operator
- Tuskegee Aviation Institute
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- 1
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Columbus Municipal Airport, Columbus, GeorgiaTo Columbus Airport (CSG)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On April 22, 1947, a Douglas DC-3 of Delta Air Lines and a Vultee BT-13 Valiant of the Tuskegee Aviation Institute collided in mid-air above Muscogee County Airport (now Columbus Airport) in Georgia, United States, and crashed. All nine people on board the two aircraft, including eight Delta executives, were killed in the accident. The mid-air collision was the first fatal accident for Delta Air Lines since 1935 and is the deadliest accident to have occurred at the Columbus Airport.
Accident flights
The Delta Air Lines DC-3 took off from Macon Municipal Airport at 10:04 a.m. At 10:34 a.m, following a routine flight, the captain reported over Columbus. At about the same time, the pilot of the BT-13 was approaching Muscogee County Airport from the southeast.
The BT-13 had taken off at 10:30 a.m. from Columbus Municipal Airport, an airport just to the south of Downtown Columbus, Georgia, which had an unpaved runway. At the time of the accident, it had been recently supplanted by Muscogee County Airport as the city's primary airport; however, general aviation activities continued at Columbus Municipal Airport until its closure in 1969. The flight path of the BT-13 prior to nearing Muscogee County Airport was unknown.
The BT-13 reached the vicinity of Muscogee County Airport and approached Runway 5 without first flying any traffic circuits. The DC-3, on the other hand, initially flew one and a half traffic circuits for landing until the captain also aligned it for a landing on Runway 5. Visibility at the airport was reported to have been "perfect".
The DC-3 was on final approach to Muscogee County Airport at a height of just 10 feet when the Vultee BT-13, which was also landing, suddenly touched down on it at 10:40 a.m. The two aircraft became wedged together with the left wing of the BT-13 getting caught on the empennage of the DC-3. While the weight of the BT-13 and the force of the collision pushed the DC-3 down, Captain Cushing gave it full throttle, which caused the two planes to climb to an altitude of 150 feet before a stall occurred. The two planes, still wedged together, struck the ground and caught fire. The planes burned on the ground for an hour and a half before the fire was extinguished by firefighting crews from Columbus, Fort Benning, and Lawson Army Airfield. All nine people occupying the two planes were killed upon impact or in the ensuing fire.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
After the accident, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) took over the investigation into the cause of the crash. Delta's president, Collett E. Woolman, immediately attributed the accident to the airport's lack of a control tower. A public hearing was held by the CAB ten days after the accident. The CAB released their final report on the accident on July 31, 1947. The investigators found Fussell, the pilot of the Vultee to be responsible for the accident, especially since he had failed to fly a standard left-hand circuit and look for other air traffic when approaching the airport.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1947 Columbus mid-air collision” (revision 1340868600, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1947 Columbus mid-air collision
- Revision
- 1340868600 · 2026-02-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q109898050
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1947 Columbus mid-air collision" (page 78960934, revision 1340868600)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.