Ceremony set to honor victims of 1974 plane crash that killed 72 in Charlotte
Relatives of the victims of the worst plane crash in Charlotte history have banded together to have the doomed 1974 Eastern Air Lines flight memorialized locally.
On Sept. 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashed into a cornfield 3 miles short of Charlotte’s airport, killing 72 people.
“It’s the most serious air disaster in Charlotte’s history, and almost nobody knows about it,” said Charles McDonald, who’s trying to change that.
McDonald’s father was one of the 72 victims of the crash, which was the subject of a five-part Charlotte Observer series and video documentary on its 50-year anniversary in September 2024. Ten people survived the crash, although seven of them have died in the intervening 50 years.
“The documentary got me thinking as to why there is no memorial anywhere in Charlotte to the victims of this crash,” McDonald said.
Joining together with a number of other relatives of the victims and survivors of Flight 212, McDonald has led an effort to have the crash recognized in Charlotte. A significant step in that process will occur at 10 a.m. Saturday, when the first installment of a number of engraved bricks will be dedicated on the patio at the Sullenberger Aviation Museum.
The dedication ceremony is free and open to the public and is expected to draw numerous family members of passengers of Eastern Flight 212. The bricks all have inscriptions related to the crash, were purchased by people connected with Flight 212, will be grouped together and will support the museum’s mission of aviation safety, McDonald said.
McDonald hopes this is the first of a two-step process for recognition of the victims of Flight 212. He is also campaigning for some sort of memorial at the new Airport Overlook Park — possibly a park bench where visitors could watch planes take off and land and also read a plaque with some information about the flight and its legacy. A memorial at the actual crash site is not currently feasible, McDonald and others connected to the flight believe, since the area in south Charlotte is overgrown by woods and is on private land.
Eastern Flight 212 — which originated from Charleston, S.C., in 1974, and held many passengers from that city — is known to aviation enthusiasts for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the father and two of the older brothers of future late-night talk-show host and comedian Stephen Colbert were killed in the crash. (Stephen Colbert was 10 years old at the time, living in the Charleston area with his family.) Second, the crash eventually helped to make all flights safer because it was at least partly responsible for the advent of the “sterile cockpit” rule, introduced by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1981.
The “sterile cockpit” rule prohibits pilots from engaging in conversations unrelated to operating the aircraft when flying below 10,000 feet. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Flight 212 crashed in 1974 due to pilot error, and a recording of the two pilots’ conversation while landing revealed that much of it had little to do with flying the plane. (The only known surviving piece of Eastern Flight 212 is the flight data recorder, which is on display at Sullenberger Aviation Museum.)
The crash was an avoidable tragedy, but McDonald and other family members of its victims and survivors don’t believe it should also be a forgotten one.
Christopher Arnold is the son of Richard Arnold, one of the 10 original survivors of Flight 212. Christopher Arnold has helped design a website to memorialize Flight 212. He said his father has also gained some closure in recent months by making connections with other families who had loved ones on the flight.
“This has been a very meaningful experience,” Christopher Arnold said.
“We have found it both difficult and very satisfying to connect with these other families who have had similar experiences,” McDonald agreed. “It was a terrible tragedy, but it should be remembered.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
