National Affairs: Smoke in Maryland

Above the green woods and fields of Maryland the sunny, early evening sky was cloudless and clear. From their DC-3, Civil Aeronautics Board inspectors watched Eastern Airlines' Miami-bound plane pass their slower craft and wing majestically down the airway to the south. The CABmen were flying back to Washington from LaGuardia Field after investigating the worst disaster in the history of U.S. civil aviation (see below). The plane that had just passed was doomed to figure in an even more horrible one.

At 6:45, while the CABmen watched with narrowed eyes, the DC-4 suddenly...