Carole Lombard’s fatal flight

TWA Flight 3, a twin-engine DC-3 airliner, originates in New York late on Jan. 15, 1942. After several stops, it arrives in Indianapolis at 5:27 a.m.* on Jan. 16. Actress Carole Lombard Gable, her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and Clark Gable’s Hollywood agent, Otto Winkler, board to return to Burbank, California, following a war bond rally. After picking up a contingent of Army Air Corps pilots in Albuquerque, the flight skips a scheduled landing in Boulder City because there are no landing strip lights there and diverts to McCarran Field, now Nellis Air Force Base. With headings still set from Boulder City, the aircraft with 22 on board departs at 7:07 p.m. and flies into Potosi Mountain at 7:23 p.m., exploding in a fireball and killing all on board. (*All times local)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS At 5:23 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1942, Lombard’s TWA flight left Indianapolis before getting delayed by fog in St. Louis.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Carole Lombard and her husband, Clark Gable, watch a lawn tennis match in Los Angeles in 1936.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Actress Carole Lombard rehearses her role in selling defense bonds and stamps in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1942.