In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

- 97 Chapter Six On 6 August 1936, “one of the famous romances of the air came to an end.” Phoebe received the devastating phone call in the early hours of the morning telling her that Vernon was dead; he had been killed in a plane crash. As she caught her breath, she asked: was he at the controls? They told her no, that Vernon had been a passenger on a commercial flight.1 He had bought a one-way ticket. Vernon was on his way to Detroit to pick up a new plane. The flight originated in New Orleans; he climbed aboard at Memphis, the only passenger traveling with the two pilots until they reached St. Louis. There, five more men boarded the late-night flight to Chicago. They took off from Lambert Field at 9:56 pm. Weather conditions were good: partly cloudy, a 2000-foot ceiling, overcast skies, moderate fog, visibility 1½ miles, and a 4 mph wind. Six minutes after takeoff, the plane did not respond to a radio call. Controllers tried querying airports along the way. No word. They later learned that less than ten minutes after takeo ff, the plane crashed in an open pasture, engines wide open, wing digging into the dirt at top speed until it broke apart, killing all eight aboard. The sleek modern three-month-old Lockheed Electra City of Memphis had been routinely inspected during its stopover at St. Louis; investigators found no apparent mechanical failure.2 - 98 Walking on Air It was four hours before a search party located the shattered Electra. All the bodies were thrown clear of the wreckage; the pilot’s watch had stopped at 10:02 pm. Given the condition of the wreckage, the best guess was that the pilot had become disoriented in the gathering ground fog over the Missouri River, made an attempt to turn back to Lambert Field, and had banked sharply to the left at full throttle while too near the ground. A wingtip caught and tripped the plane into a cartwheel. The gear was retracted, indicating the pilot had not been trying to land. A full investigation led by Air Commerce director Eugene Vidal himself was unable to produce a better explanation than the one provided by Chicago and Southern Air Lines president Carleton Putnam: “It was one of those things that can’t happen but still did.”3 Captain Omlie had spent a lifetime in the air and was known as one of the most cautious fliers in the business. He had never crashed a ship in his entire career as a pilot. Articles about the tragedy noted the irony of Vernon meeting death as an air passenger on what was to have been a routine flight.4 “How the evil Fates must have chortled that Vernon Omlie, who had worked so long and hard to lay a foundation for transport aviation, should thus be taken,” his widow later wrote.5 Phoebe, a reporter noted, demonstrated her own “undaunted faith in aviation” by booking the first available flight home after learning of her husband’s fatal crash.6 Her mother and father flew in from Iowa City and his mother, sister, and brother joined his widow in Memphis. Vernon Omlie was buried in his Reserve Officers Flying Corps uniform with full military honors in a donated grave at Forest Hills Cemetery. His grave was banked with flowers, many in the shape of wings; a firing squad fired a military salute and an American Legion bugler sounded “Taps.”7 Thirteen private planes, draped in black and flown by Vernon’s friends, associates, and students, flew an aerial salute over the funeral party. One dropped roses. “Each gave the aviator’s wing salute, dipped low over the cemetery, and ‘went upstairs’ with struts singing a final farewell.”8 A stunned Phoebe struggled to go on. She later described her husband as “My Beloved Husband and Life’s Greatest Inspiration.” Vernon, she wrote, was “one of the most thoughtful pilots in the world—a trait he managed to hammer home to me—therefore, we had no inkling that we wouldn’t in due time cross the threshold of old age together.” Now she would have to carry on alone, and she was determined to be brave about it: “I have tried to be faithful to the code of smothering all personal grief.”9 She put Vernon’s affairs in order as best she could. She was most concerned with stabilizing his business...

Share