Piedmont Airlines Plane Crash

Thirty-five passengers and crew members died when a Piedmont Airlines plane crashed Aug. 10, 1968, at Kanawha County Airport. The accident happened about 9 a.m. on a foggy morning when the radio-controlled glide slope wasn't working. The twin-engine propjet hit the steep slope short of the main runway. "Shredding debris, it wheeled up onto the grassy plain about 300 feet past the end of the runway," the Gazette reported. Among the passengers were a Charleston man on his first furlough home from the Marines, an Army private coming home on emergency leave to see his sick mother, and another Army serviceman who had asked an uncle to meet him so he could surprise his parents. It was the worst airplane crash in the 50-year history of the mountaintop airport. (Photo from Charleston Newspapers files.)