Status:	Final
Date:	Sunday 25 August 1946
Time:	22:10
Type:	Douglas C-47A-80-DL (DC-3)
Operator:	American Airlines
Registration:	NC88826
MSN:	19776
First flight:	1944
Total airframe hrs:	3462
Engines:	2 Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92
Crew:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Passengers:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0
Total:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Damaged beyond repair
Location:	8 km (5 mls) WSW of Ashland, MS (   United States of America)
Phase:	Maneuvering (MNV)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	Memphis Municipal Airport, TN (MEM/KMEM), United States of America
Destination airport:	Memphis Municipal Airport, TN (MEM/KMEM), United States of America
Flightnumber:	AA26

Narrative:
The DC-3, named "Flagship Tulsa" was scheduled for a routine training flight of approximately three hours duration in the Memphis area at an altitude of 4,000 feet. The aircraft departed Memphis Municipal Airport at 21:10. Nothing more was heard from the flight. It appeared that the DC-3 had crashed into the ground at high speed and in an extremely nose-low attitude. As a result of the investigation of this accident, it appears that the aircraft, for reasons not determined, entered an unusual attitude from which recovery was not completed. Recovery in this instance may have been complicated by unsecured ballast or defective instruments, or both.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the loss of control of the aircraft during an unusual attitude. Neither the reason for the initial loss of control nor the reason for the pilot's failure to recover has been determined."

Loss of control

» Air Britain Casualty compendium (pt. 43)
» CAB File No. 5181-46