USAir Flight 1016 crashed in Charlotte 30 years ago
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The memorial for USAir Flight 1016 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport's new airport overlook includes a plaque in memory of those who died or were injured and those who helped rescue efforts. Photo: Ashley Mahoney/Axios
Today, a memorial for USAir Flight 1016 stands at the new Charlotte Douglas Airport overlook. It honors the people who died on board the flight from Columbia, S.C. to Charlotte on July 2, 1994.
Why it matters: "Airplanes don't fly nearly as much into thunderstorms as they used to, as a result of the accident," former Charlotte Douglas International Airport aviation director, Jerry Orr, said in 2004.
Flashback: "The plane broke into three parts, and burst into flames," Charlotte Observer writer David Perlmutt wrote in 2004.
- Capt. Michael R. Greenlee equated the fall to "a rug being pulled out from under you," when he testified about the crash in September 1994.
State of play: It's been 30 years since the crash. Thirty years since 37 of the 57 people onboard died. But people in Charlotte have not forgotten.
- Over the years, people have brought flowers, poems, small crosses and other tokens to Old Dowd and Wallace Neel roads where the crash happened.
- The new airport overlook memorial was designed to represent Morse code for CAE (Columbia) and CLT, the origin and destination airports for the flight. It includes a plaque in memory of those who died or were injured and those who helped rescue efforts.
