Talk:Southern Airways Flight 242
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[edit] Accident site
There is some confusion regarding the accident site. The NTSB calls the site: "State Spur Highway 92 bisecting New Hope, Georgia", and the accident site is "New Hope, GA" for short in all accident summaries. The NTSB supplies the site coordinates of 33°57'45"N, 84°47'13"W, and depicts it on an aviation Sectional chart of the era in the report appendix, at a location that roughly corresponds to the specified coords (crudely hand drawn).
The main problem is the town name "New Hope". As of 2006, the closest town in GA by that name, per Googlemaps, is 150 miles to the east, incorporated into Lincolnton, GA. OTOH, state highway 92 is (currently) a rural road that merges with current state highway 381 that seems to have a nice straight section that could serve for an emergency landing and matches with the given coords. The straight section extends to the NE from the final eastward path of the flight, as reconstructed from radar and depicted on the Sectional chart. The merge point of current (2006) route 92 seems to be somewhat northeast of that location, on state highway 381.
Per Google and WP, "New Hope" is also the name of an old antebellum church, apparently not far from Dallas, GA, where the famous Battle of New Hope Church was fought, so possibly there was some locality by that name near that site in 1977. Perhaps someone local or with more specific info can shed light on this issue. Thanks, Crum375 17:26, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
Doing some more research, it seems in fact there is or was a small community (30 families in 1997?) called "New Hope" just northeast of Dallas, GA, apparently right at the accident site. Highway 92 has been relocated several times in recent years and Hwy 381 has been officially 'retired' (but still shown on GoogleMaps) and renamed 'Dallas-Acworth Highway'. Here are some sources: [1][2] I'll return the "New Hope" as accident site once I can find it mentioned anywhere else, unrelated to the accident. Note again that GoogleMaps currently places "New Hope, GA" 150 miles east at Lincolnton. Crum375 22:16, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Reading [3] the mystery is over: clearly Hwy 92 as depicted in the old 60's maps is exactly where the presumed "straight section" was and still is, and "New Hope" appears on the enclosed maps from 1964 and 1968, matching the NTSB accident coords. The "92 Spur" terminology is also included. Now the issue is to include the old location name(s) followed by the new name(s). Crum375 22:25, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Some more info for the record. Per MapQuest, there are eight (8) different "New Hope, GA" towns in 8 different counties. The accident site is in Paulding County, here. So "New Hope", Paulding County, still exists in 2006. There is hope yet. Crum375 23:33, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
- Just wanted to say you've done a great job editing and improving this article. Well done! - Itsfullofstars 18:15, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
