The big DC-6 American Airliner, with 25 aboard, had just passed over Gallup, New Mexico when the fire broke out. Pilot Evan Chatfield swung back for the field at Gallup, praying for time to make it. He did. Fire trucks quickly snuffed out the blaze. The damage was small—only a foot-square hole in the plane. But the near-catastrophe frightened the airlines.
It was the second fire aboard a DC-6 in three weeks—and both had started near the gasoline-burning heater under the cabin floor. The other plane, a United ship, with 52 aboard, had crashed (TIME, Nov. 3), with no survivors....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
