What, you’ve never heard of Northwest flight 710? That’s probably because the crash happened nearly 50 years ago, on March 17, 1960 to be precise. After I left Indianapolis last week, I decided that I would avoid interstates for the drive to Phoenix, and that helped me find all kinds of excellent aviation-related stops, including a memorial for Northwest 710.
The recommendation came from a friend. He said if I went south until just before Indiana met Kentucky at the Ohio River, I could find this memorial just a few miles east of Cannelton, Indiana. It wasn’t easy to find at first, but once I got there, I found this:
The memorial is very simple, but extremely touching. In addition to the names of all the passengers and crew (including, eerily, someone with the same name as my grandfather), there is a very nice inscription. See for yourself:
This accident was one of the “whirl-mode” accidents that plagued the Lockheed Electra in its early days. The wing broke apart in mid-air and the pieces came crashing down into this spot at full speed.
If you’d like to see the location on Google Maps, enter these coordinates: 37.911041,-86.633044. I also have more pictures from my visit here.
