On a cold, clear night 50 years ago, a TWA plane lifted off from here on the last leg of a 17-hour flight carrying movie queen Carole Lombard home to Hollywood.
Lombard, returning from a patriotic pilgrimage, would die minutes later in a fiery crash on Mount Potosi, 30 miles to the southwest.The Jan. 16, 1942, crash ended the storybook marriage of Lombard, one of America's most glamorous and gifted actresses, and movie legend Clark Gable.
It prompted a six-month FBI probe and a congressional investigation.
And it shocked a nation being hammered in Europe and still reeling from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Some 22 people died in the crash, including 15 Army Air Corps officers.
The patriot fervor of Lombard and Gable played a major role in the ironic sequence of events that led to her death.
Gable was head of the Hollywood Victory Committee and Lombard volunteered to go on a fund-raising drive for U.S. defense bonds. Gable was unable to go because he was finishing a motion picture.
On Jan. 12, Lombard, 33, boarded a train in Los Angeles for a trip to her home state of Indiana, stopping along the way for a series of war bond rallies. Government officials set a goal of $500,000 in war bond sales in her Indiana appearances, but she raised $2.1 million.
Anxious to return to Hollywood for a scheduled premiere of her latest movie, "To Be or Not To Be" with Jack Benny, Lombard elected to fly home. She grabbed a last-minute predawn flight out of Indianapolis despite the urging of family and friends to go by train.
TWA Flight 3 was a milk run from Indianapolis, with stops in several cities. Some passengers were bumped from the flight in Albuquerque when the 15 Army officers boarded.
Lombard resisted efforts to bump her from the flight, citing the fact she was on government business because of her war bond efforts.
The final stop was in Las Vegas. TWA flights normally stopped at their own terminal in Boulder City, Nev., but opted for the Las Vegas airport because it was lighted for night landings.
Authorities say the pilot, TWA Capt. Wayne Williams, apparently set his headings based on taking off from Boulder City, rather than the Las Vegas airport, 20 miles to the north.
The difference in the course resulted in the plane flying into Double Up Peak, part of the 8,500-foot Mount Potosi range.
The thunderous crash and fireball that followed sent Las Vegans scurrying from their homes and casinos.
Gable came to Las Vegas to await word on his wife and was soon joined by longtime friend Spencer Tracy.
Gable married two more times after Lombard's death but often referred to her as "the love of my life." At his request, he was buried next to Lombard when he died in 1961.
Authorities spent months chasing rumors ranging from sabotage to overloading of the aircraft. The final ruling by the Civil Aeronautics Board, six months after the crash, was that the probable cause "was the failure of the captain to follow the proper course."