Southern Storm

The Tragedy of Flight 242

By: Samme Chittum

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

On the afternoon of April 4, 1977, Georgia housewife Sadie Burkhalter Hurst looked out her front door to see a frantic stranger running toward her, his clothes ablaze, and, behind him, the mangled fuselage of a passenger plane that had just crashed in her yard.

The plane, a Southern Airways DC-9-31, had been carrying 81 passengers and four crew members en route to Atlanta when it entered a massive thunderstorm cell that turned into a dangerous cocktail of rain, hail, and lightning. Forced down onto a highway, the plane cut a swath of devastation through the small town of New Hope, breaking apart and killing bystanders on the ground before coming to rest in Hurst's front yard.

Ultimately, only 22 people survived, and urgent questions immediately arose: What caused the pilots to fly into the storm instead of away from it? Could the crash have been prevented? Southern Storm addresses these issues and more, offering an insider's look at this disaster and the systemic overhauls that followed it.

©2018 Samme Chittum (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A Good Read

An excellent account of detailing the events that took place not only the survivors but those in the surrounding community. The pilots were given a lot to process in a short amount of time with little to no assistance from the air traffic controller. The author captures the unforeseen weakening and breaks in the "safety chain".

character driven

a bit repetitive, but does well fleshing out all the individuals involved in the crash

Compelling read.

I found this book hard to put down. Samme is a good writer and I look forward to more of her books. I can not imagine the research that went into compiling this true story. And Keith was a pleasure to listen to. So often a reader can ruin a story. Not Keith. Thanks for a good story and a pleasant one to listen to.

Compelling Story

A well written and comprehensive account of a tragic aviation disaster. There are some grim descriptions of injuries but those serve to underscore what the first responders, nearby residents, survivors and their families had to work through to cope with the aftermath.

Human side of the story: lives affected

Great storytelling of the passengers, crew, and those on the ground. The only thing missing was lessons learned for the future and what the FAA changed moving forward.