| Crash site | Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, USA |
| Airline | Delta Air Lines |
| Aircraft | Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1 – N726DA |
| Route | Fort Lauderdale – Dallas – Los Angeles |
| Crew | 11 – 3 survivors |
| Passengers | 152 – 26 survivors |
The crash
The plane crashed at 18:06 while approaching to land on the airport in very bad weather conditions (thunderstorm with a heavy rain shower). The plane struck the ground almost 2 km. north of the approach end of the runway, hit a car on a highway north of the runway killing the driver, struck two water tank reservoirs on the airport and exploaded into flames.
The mail
The accident report does not mention anything about cargo and mail. But the plane did carry mail and some of the mail was recovered in badly burned condition and was marked with a special handstamp. As the mail was much damaged items was often forwarded in a special plastic bag/sleeve.
I have not seen so much mail from this crash, but as the American Air Mail Catalogue valuate mail to 40$ there must be quite many saved items.
As this was a domestic flight not so much foreign mail was on board. The only Nordic item so far recorded is a postcard from Finland.
A.
Handstamp.
Purple.
Size: 82 x 16 mm.
Examples of mail
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Postcard from Finland postmarked HELSINKI / HELSINGFORS 29.7.85 and addressed to Hurst, Texas with crash handstamp type A. The much charred card was forwarded in a US Postal Service cover (plastic bag) from Postmaster Dallas. |
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