The Marshall University Air Crash: A Community's Tragedy and Triumph
The story of Marshall University's football team, the Thundering Herd, is one of devastating loss and inspiring resilience. The events, immortalized in the film "We Are Marshall," sound like a Hollywood invention, yet they are rooted in a real-life tragedy that struck the university and the close-knit community of Huntington, West Virginia.
The Fateful Flight
On November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed on approach to Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia. The flight was chartered to carry the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team home after a game against East Carolina University. Aboard the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 were 70 passengers and five crew members - all of whom perished in the crash.
The aircraft, tail registration N97S, was a 95-seat, twin-jet engine Douglas DC-9-30. The crew consisted of Captain Frank Abbott (47), First Officer Jerry Smith (28), and two flight attendants, all qualified for the flight.
The flight had originated in Atlanta, Georgia, and stopped in Kinston, North Carolina, to pick up the Marshall University contingent. The flight proceeded to Huntington without incident. Controllers advised the crew of "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" at the airport, making landing more difficult. At 7:34 pm, the airliner's crew reported passing Tri-State Airport's outer marker and were cleared to land.
The Crash
About 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Tri-State Airport runway, the airplane struck trees on a hill, cutting a 75-foot wide, 279-foot long (22.8 x 85 meter) swath through them before crashing into the ground. The plane exploded on impact. The tower controller, who was watching for Flight 932 after it passed the Instrument Landing System's (ILS) outer marker, noticed a red glow to the west of the runway. Unable to contact the plane, the tower crew initiated emergency procedures.
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The aircraft "dipped to the right, almost inverted, and had crashed into a hollow 'nose-first'," according to the official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report. By the time the plane came to a stop, it was 4,219 ft (1,286 m) short of the runway and 275 ft (84 m) south of the middle marker. The accident occurred during hours of darkness at 38° 22' 27" N. latitude and 82° 34' 42" W.
The Investigation
The NTSB investigated the accident extensively, issuing its final report on April 14, 1972. The investigation found that the airplane was in good condition and had been properly maintained. The crew had filed an accurate flight plan and adhered to it. The plane was not overloaded, and its center of gravity was within normal limits. The pilot and first officer were experienced and qualified to make the flight, and the pilot had a 20-hour rest period before reporting for duty. Investigators found no sign of any sort of catastrophic failure in the structure of the airplane, its instruments, or its power system. They also found no serious missteps at the airport.
The runway was wet due to weather, but the flight crew knew about its condition and had adjusted their descent to compensate. Although it was raining and cold, airport personnel reported a visibility of five miles (eight kilometers) until just after the crash.
However, the airport did not have a glide slope as part of its ILS due to the nature of the terrain around the airport. A glide slope transmits a signal to the aircraft to help the pilot make sure that the plane descends at the right angle. Because of the absence of the glide slope, the landing was considered a non-precision instrument approach. Investigators also ruled out the height of the trees as a factor and found that the trees were too tall according to the Federal Aviation Regulations in use at the time.
The NTSB's final analysis was that the airplane had crashed because it was below the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA). In other words, it crashed because it was too close to the ground while descending.
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The NTSB narrowed the cause down to two possibilities: improper use of cockpit instrumentation data, or an altimetry system error.
The flight data recorder (FDR) showed the plane twice overshooting and then correcting its rate of descent. Tests on the planes' barometric altimeters revealed that both the pilot's and the first officer's instruments may have malfunctioned and seemed to report that the airplane was 300 feet (91.4 meters) higher than it really was. Another theory was that the pilot and first officer were using their radio altimeters to determine the plane's altitude. In very hilly or uneven terrain, like the area of West Virginia where the plane crashed, radio altimeters could give inaccurate readings.
Regardless of exactly why the plane was flying too low, the pilot and first officer were probably completely unaware that it was doing so. The first officer's callouts as recorded in the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) were consistently higher than the measurements recorded in the plane's FDR. The crew believed the plane was on a normal descent to the airport and did not note any cause for concern other than a minor issue with the autopilot. The pilot also remarked that the autopilot seemed sluggish.
The CVR also recorded a comment from the flight's charter coordinator, a Southern Airways employee who was in the cockpit just before the crash. The flight coordinator remarked, "Bet'll be a missed approach." Investigators believed that he noticed that the plane was approaching MDA but had not made visual contact with the airport.
The NTSB found a few points at which the pilot or first officer did not strictly adhere to landing procedures on approach to Tri-State Airport. For example, it appears that the pilot attempted to level off only after he reached minimum descent altitude. However, since the tops of the trees were more than 300 feet below MDA, leveling off earlier would not likely have prevented the crash.
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The Aftermath and Impact
The crash took the lives of everyone on board: 37 players, nine coaches and administrators, 25 fans, and a crew of five. The impact on Marshall University and the surrounding community was profound. Government offices and local businesses were closed. The University canceled many activities and held a memorial service at the stadium on Sunday, Nov. 15. It also canceled Monday's classes. Funeral and memorial services took place over the following weeks.
The crash was just the most tragic in a string of unfortunate events that had befallen the Marshall football team since about 1960. The university stadium, which hadn’t been renovated since before World War II, was condemned in 1962. From the last game of the 1966 season to midway through the 1969 season, the team hadn’t won any games. Making matters worse, the NCAA had suspended Marshall for more than 100 recruiting violations. (The Mid-American Conference had expelled the team for the same reason.) But Marshall seemed to be getting back on track: It had fired the dishonest coaches, built a new Astroturf field and started winning games again.
For Huntington, the plane crash was “like the Kennedy assassination,” one citizen remembers. “Everybody knows where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.” The town immediately went into mourning. Shops and government offices closed; businesses on the town’s main street draped their windows in black bunting. The university held a memorial service in the stadium the next day and cancelled Monday’s classes. There were so many funerals that they had to be spread out over several weeks. In perhaps the saddest ceremony of all, six players whose remains couldn’t be identified were buried together in Spring Hill Cemetery, on a hill overlooking their university.
Identifying the bodies was an almost impossible task because the explosion tore them apart and the fire burned them to bits.
At ECU, students and administration were at a loss for words upon receiving news of the crash and the loss of those who had just spent a Saturday afternoon with them in Ficklen Stadium. In honor of those who lost their lives, ECU lowered the flag on campus to half-staff and held a memorial service on Sunday, November 15 that a large portion of the student body and campus administrators, faculty, and staff attended in order to pay their respects. During the service, Chancellor Leo Jenkins delivered an emotional speech, expressing compassion and sympathy on behalf of the ECU community.
Rebuilding and Remembrance
On March 17, 1971, Jack Lengyel became Marshall University's new football coach. Assistant Coach Alfred "Red" Dawson, who had made the trip back to West Virginia by car, returned to coach for one year. They started with the players who had not been on board the flight because of injuries, academic conflicts, and other reasons. To these players, they added athletes who played other sports. The school also requested permission from the NCAA to allow freshmen to play, which the NCAA granted.
The Young Thundering Herd lost its first game, which was against Morehead. But it won its second game- its first home game- against Xavier University with a score of 15 to 13. The Thundering Herd began to have winning seasons in 1984. Marshall played in the NCAA Division I-AA playoff in 1987 and the Southern Conference football championship in 1988. In 1992 and 1996, Marshall was the NCAA Division I-AA champion.
The 1970 tragedy is still a part of life at Marshall and in the city of Huntington. An annual memorial ceremony takes place at the Memorial Student Center Fountain, which was dedicated on Nov. 12, 1972. The sculpture's designer, Harry Bertoia, created the $25,000 memorial using bronze, copper tubing, and welding rods. The 6,500 lb, 13 ft-high (2,900 kg, 4 m-high) sculpture was completed within a year and a half. Every year, on the anniversary of the crash, the fountain is shut during a commemorative ceremony and not activated again until the following spring.
A number of the victims are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington. On November 11, 2000, the "We Are Marshall" Memorial Bronze was dedicated. The $150,000 bronze 17×23 ft (5×7 m) statue was created by artist Burl Jones of Sissonville, West Virginia, based upon ideas by John and Ann Krieger of Huntington. It was funded by Marshall fans and is attached to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on the west façade. On December 11, 2006, a memorial plaque was dedicated at the plane crash site. Another plaque memorializing the 1970 Marshall football team was unveiled at East Carolina University on the same day and can be seen at the guest team entrance of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
November 14, 2013, marked the first time that Marshall played a road game on an anniversary of the disaster. As a memorial to the 75 victims, the Marshall players wore the number 75 on their helmets. Marshall was scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the air disaster in their football season opener on August 29, 2020. The opponent was scheduled to be East Carolina, the same team that defeated Marshall before the disaster took place.
After the 1970 game, ECU and Marshall would not meet on the football field again until 1978 and then again in the 2001 GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation) Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. The two teams renewed their annual historic rivalry in 2005 when Marshall University joined ECU as members of the C-USA East Division, and they played yearly from 2005 until ECU left the conference following the 2013 season. At the 2006 matchup, ECU again honored those who perished in the 1970 plane crash with a memorial plaque at the visitor’s gate of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
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