TODAY'S TWD: FLIGHT 1

This week's episode of 'Mad Men' used an historical tragedy to build tis plot - one of the characters lost a family member on board American Airlines Flight 1.......

Here are the details of the crash, courtesy of Wikipedia:

American Airlines Flight 1, registration N7506A, took off from Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) on March 1, 1962. The Boeing 707-123 was headed to Los Angeles International Airport with 87 passengers and 8 flight crew onboard. Improper maintenance technique resulted in internal wiring damage and rudder failure, causing the Boeing 707-123 to nose-dive into Jamaica Bay at 10:07 EST, killing all 95 on board the aircraft.

Among the victims was Louise Linder Eastman, whose daughter Linda Eastman would later marry the Beatle Paul McCartney. The crash, coincidentally, occurred at the same time that U.S. astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. was being honored with a ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan for his successful manned space flight aboard the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962.

The flight number is still used as of July 26, 2008 on its New York JFK/Los Angeles LAX route; American Airlines Flight 1 is currently operated daily with a Boeing 767-223ER.

At the time it was the worst air accident in U.S. history.

Because of the renewed attention brought by the TV show, the City Room blog of the NY Times posted a remembrance. And the original coverage by Time magazine can be found online as well.

BCnU!
Toby O'B