The C-46 Plane Crash in Hang on and Fly
The photograph below portrays the Curtiss C-46 Commando, the tail number N 3944 C, when it was in the Riddle Airlines fleet, probably in 1950. Although I have no records of this plane in the Riddle lineup, its whereabouts in the mid-1950s were unknown to me.
The origin of this photograph is undetermined. However, it's possible that it's from the Bill Larkins photo collection. It appears without attribution on page 61 of the December 2019 issue of Air Classics magazine, published by Challenge Publications, Inc. The caption below the photograph, while misstating the accurate itinerary of Continental Charters Flight 44-2, is gleaned from my book, Hang on and Fly. The book is the only place where it's revealed that relief pilots charged the cockpit door arguing with and shouting commands to the flight pilots just seconds before the crash.
Magazine courtesy of Hang on and Fly reader, Fred Oullette, Maine.