<P> The plane was carrying 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, and five flight crew members . The team was returning home after a 17--14 loss to the East Carolina Pirates at Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina . </P> <P> At the time, Marshall's athletic teams rarely traveled by plane, since most away games were within easy driving distance of the campus . The team originally planned to cancel the flight, but changed plans and chartered the Southern Airways DC - 9 . The accident is the deadliest tragedy affecting any sports team in U.S. history . It was the second college football team plane crash in a little over a month . Wichita State's team plane crashed in Colorado just 43 days earlier killing 14 players and 31 people overall . </P> <P> The aircraft was a 95 - seat, twin jet engine Douglas DC - 9 - 30 with tail registration N97S . The airliner's crew was Captain Frank H. Abbot, 47; First Officer Jerry Smith, 28; and flight attendants Pat Vaught and Charlene Poat . All were qualified for the flight . Another employee of Southern Airways, Danny Deese, was aboard the flight to coordinate charter activities . This flight was the only flight that year for the Marshall University football team . </P> <P> The original proposal to charter the flight was refused because it would exceed "the takeoff limitations of their aircraft . The subsequent negotiations resulted in a reduction of the weight of passengers and baggage...and the charter flight was scheduled ." The airliner left Stallings Field at Kinston, North Carolina, and the flight proceeded to Huntington without incident . The crew established radio contact with air traffic controllers at 7: 23 pm with instructions to descend to 5,000 feet . The controllers advised the crew that there was "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" at the airport, making landing more difficult but possible . At 7: 34 p.m., the airliner's crew reported passing Tri-State Airport's outer marker . The controller gave them clearance to land . The aircraft began its normal descent after passing the outer marker, but did not arrest its descent and hold altitude at 1240 ft, as required by the assigned instrument approach procedure . Instead, the descent continued for another 300 ft for unknown reasons, apparently without either crewmember actually seeing the airport lights or runway . In the transcript of their cockpit communications in the final minutes, the pilots briefly debated that their autopilot had "captured" for a glide slope descent, although the airport was only equipped with a localizer . The report also noted that the craft approached a refinery in the final 30 seconds before impact, which "could have...affected...a visual illusion produced by the difference in the elevation of the refinery and the airport," which was nearly 300 ft higher than the refinery--and that only after a craft would pass over a few intervening hills . The co-pilot, monitoring the altimeter called out, "It's beginning to lighten up a little bit on the ground here at...seven hundred feet...We're two hundred above (the descent vector)," and the charter coordinator replied, "Bet' ll be a missed approach ." The corresponding flight recorder shows that the craft descended another 220 ft in elevation within these 12 seconds, and the co-pilot calls out "four hundred" and agrees with the pilot they are on the correct "approach ." However, in the next second the co-pilot quickly calls out new readings, "hundred and twenty - six...HUNDRED," and the sounds of impact immediately follow . </P>

Where did the marshall football team plane crash