Survivor’s Story: 35th Anniversary Of Southern Airways Crash

This past week was the 35th anniversary of the worst aviation accident in Huntsville’s history.

Southern Airways Flight 242 left Huntsville on April 4, 1977, bound for Atlanta.  Just over the Georgia line, the plane flew into a severe thunderstorm.

The engines sucked in so much hail that the plane crashed, killing 63 people on board and nine on the ground.  Twenty-three people survived.

Former WHNT News 19 anchor and reporter Missy Ming interviewed Jim Phillip in a Georgia hospital the day after the crash.