Date: April 4, 1977
Type: DC-9-31
Registration: N1335U
Operator: Southern Airways, Inc.
Where: New Hope, Georgia
Report No. NTSB-AAR-78-3
Report Date: January 26, 1978
Pages: 106

At 1619 e.s.t. April 4, 1977, a Southern Airways, Inc., DC-9, Flight 242, 
crashed in New Hope, Georgia. After losing both engines in flight, it 
attempted an emergency landing on a highway. Of the 85 persons aboard 
Flight 242, 62 were killed, 22 were seriously injured, and 1 was slightly 
injured. Eight persons on the ground were killed and one person was 
seriously injured; one person died about 1 month later.

Flight 42 entered a severe thunderstorm between 17,000 feet and 14,000 
feet near Rome, Georgia, en route from Huntsville to Atlanta. Both 
engines were damaged and all thrust was lost. The engines could not be 
restarted and the flightcrew was forced to make an emergency landing.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable 
cause of this accident was the total and unique loss of thrust from both 
engines while the aircraft was penetrating an area of severe 
thunderstorms.  The loss of thrust was caused by the ingestion of massive 
amounts of water and hail which in combination with thrust lever movement 
induced severe stalling in and major damage to the engine compressors.

Major contributing factors included the failure of the company's 
dispatching system to provide the flightcrew with up-to-date severe 
weather information pertaining to the aircraft's intended route of 
flight, the captain's reliance on airborne weather radar for penetration 
of thunderstorm areas, and limitations in the Federal Aviation 
Administration's air traffic control system which precluded the timely 
dissemination of real-time hazardous weather information to the 
flightcrew.