What happened
On the afternoon of the accident, Southern Airways Flight 242, a DC-9-31, was operating an instrument flight rules service from Huntsville, Alabama, toward Atlanta, Georgia. The aircraft was carrying 81 passengers and 4 crew members. During the flight, air traffic controllers alerted the crew to heavy precipitation and active SIGMET warnings in their path. While navigating through intense weather near the Rome VOR, the aircraft encountered extreme amounts of rain and hail.
The ingestion of massive quantities of water and hail into both engines triggered severe compressor stalls. This mechanical failure caused internal damage to the high-pressure compressors as blades and stator vanes broke due to overpressure surges. Consequently, both engines lost all thrust. Following the loss of power, the crew attempted to navigate toward Dobbins Air Force Base and later Cartersville, but eventually prepared for an emergency landing on a highway.
During the descent, the aircraft struck trees and utility poles near New Hope, Georgia. The left main gear made contact with the highway, and the aircraft veered off the road, traveling over 1,200 feet through a roadside area. The wreckage impacted several vehicles, fences, and a gas station. The accident resulted in 62 fatalities among those on board, along with 8 fatalities on the ground. Among the survivors, 21 persons were seriously injured and one sustained slight injuries.
Findings
Investigation into the crash determined that the primary cause was the total loss of thrust from both engines caused by the ingestion of heavy rain and hail. This weather-related event induced severe stalling and significant internal damage to the engine compressors. Contributing factors included the crew's decision to penetrate thunderstorm cells based on onboard radar, as well as systemic failures in providing the flight crew with real-time, updated hazardous weather information from both dispatch and air traffic control.