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1932 — 2004
Sober entries, as the record keeps them: The airport's deadliest day came early in the civil era. On 28 April 1951, United Air Lines Flight 129, a Douglas DC-3 out of Cleveland for Chicago with stops at Fort Wayne and South Bend, approached Baer Field through a squall line and, at 7:32 in the evening, struck the ground in a near-level attitude 2.6 miles east-southeast of the field. All eleven aboard — eight passengers and three crew — were killed, and the aircraft burned. The Civil Aeronautics Board's report of 22 October 1951 determined the probable cause to be the severe downdraft the flight encountered on approach. Two earlier and later entries bracket it in the archives: on 21 April 1932 a Stearman C-3MB mail plane on the South Bend–Fort Wayne run stalled on final approach at 300 feet and crashed short of the runway, killing its pilot — the airmail era's local price; and on 9 November 2000 a Superior Aviation Fairchild Metroliner on a cargo flight struck trees after takeoff from Fort Wayne International, crashed and burned, killing its sole occupant, the pilot. Wartime training losses at the base belong to the Military section's record. Two non-fatal episodes close the file as the published record keeps them: on 5 September 2003 a man named Charles McKinley shipped himself in a crate through the Kitty Hawk hub — Newark to Buffalo to Fort Wayne to Dallas — undetected, an episode that became a national exhibit in the argument over cargo security; and on 18 August 2004 the airport was shut down after a liquid substance leaking from luggage made six people ill.
Sources:
- Civil Aeronautics Board, Accident Investigation Report, United Air Lines, Inc., Fort Wayne, Indiana, April 28, 1951 (22 October 1951) — the Flight 129 narrative and probable cause; Aviation Safety Network database entry of the same date.
- Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, Fort Wayne file — the 21 April 1932 Stearman C-3MB crash and the wartime C-47 and B-17 entries.
- NTSB record via the airport's published accident list — the 9 November 2000 Superior Aviation Metroliner accident.
- Press record — the September 2003 McKinley crate episode and the 18 August 2004 airport shutdown.