New Hope, GA and Flight 242 Tragedy

[CardsFan]

Many people have heard of the Battle of New Hope, a.k.a The Hell Hole, during the Civil War. But did you know there was an air disaster in New Hope in 1977?

Southern Airways Flight 242 was in route from Huntsville to Atlanta when it lost power in both engines in a hail storm and was forced to land on GA381 (Dallas-Acworth Hiway). The plane touched ground right about where the Battle of New Hope took place and skidded to a stop a little less than a half mile from the touchdown point. THe plane took out trees and stores before it came to a stop.

A lot of people lost thier lives including several folks on the ground that didn't know what hit them.

I lived here for several years and didn't know about this tragedy until I saw a picture at Rodney's BBQ. Sad and fascinating.

 

[LMK]

Wow - never knew that.

 

[Camper292000]

I saw a show called air disasters on Netflix that was very well done. One was of this crash. Wow. Just wow. Had no idea. What is so sad is that they could have easily made it to an airport more northwest but the controller was not aware of the airport outside of his radar. Cartersville I think. Crazy story and shouldn't have happened. The show showed the survivors walking around like zombies.

 

[Shemp]

Wow...thanks for sharing.

 

[Beerman]

I used to work with guy that his wife was killed in that accident.

 

[davidmu39]

Were you at Rodney's last Friday looking at the picture?

 

[CardsFan]

I saw a show called air disasters on Netflix that was very well done. One was of this crash. Wow. Just wow. Had no idea. What is so sad is that they could have easily made it to an airport more northwest but the controller was not aware of the airport outside of his radar. Cartersville I think. Crazy story and shouldn't have happened. The show showed the survivors walking around like zombies.

I saw a National Geographic show about it about a year ago. The biggest mistake was sending them through what radar operators said looked like a clear spot in the storm. It turns out that spot was where the intense hail was located and it shut down both engines. Cartersville was so close but still too far away unfortunatey.

 

[D_Max]

I was in High School when this happened we lived just off of 41 HWY in Acworth,, I remember ambulances, fire and police from down town Atlanta, Marietta, almost every town within 70 miles or so responding,, one of the worst storms we had in a long time,, if I remember right one of the planes wings flattened a car with people inside and leveled the local gas station,, It was a very sad day for the area,

 

[CardsFan]

Were you at Rodney's last Friday looking at the picture?

No, it wasn't me as we didn't make it into Rodney's this weekend. But I have looked at that picture in Rodney's a lot!

I don't think Rodney's was there in 1977 but it appears to be where the plane came to a stop.

 

[D_Max]

No, it wasn't me as we didn't make it into Rodney's this weekend. But I have looked at that picture in Rodney's a lot!

I don't think Rodney's was there in 1977 but it appears to be where the plane came to a stop.

No sir Rodneys was not there