A new book by Rachael Peckham and Joel Peckham examines the enduring impact of the 1970 crash of Southern Airways Flight 932, revisiting one of the darkest moments in American sports history and the lasting effect it had on Marshall University and the Huntington, West Virginia, community.
Titled Flight 932: The 1970 Marshall Plane Crash and the Story of an American Town, the book offers a detailed account of the tragedy while exploring how survivors, families, and the broader community have lived with its consequences for more than five decades. Through historical research and personal testimonies, the authors present a comprehensive look at a disaster that continues to shape the identity of an American town.
On the evening of November 14, 1970, a chartered jetliner carrying Marshall University’s Thundering Herd football team crashed while approaching Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia. All 75 people aboard were killed, including most of the football team, coaching staff, university employees, prominent community members, and the flight crew.
The accident remains the deadliest air disaster in U.S. sports history. Often referred to as the “Marshall plane crash,” the tragedy later gained wider public recognition through the 2006 film We Are Marshall, which chronicled the university’s efforts to rebuild its football program following the devastating loss.
Rather than focusing solely on the events leading to the crash, Flight 932 examines the broader emotional and social impact left in its wake. The authors combine research into collective trauma with the experiences of surviving loved ones, witnesses, and public officials whose lives were forever changed by the disaster.
According to the book’s description, this blend of historical analysis and firsthand accounts paints a portrait of a community striving to understand an unimaginable tragedy while finding ways to move forward. The narrative explores how Huntington confronted grief, honored those who were lost, and gradually rebuilt its sense of identity over the decades.
The authors also examine how the effects of the crash extended beyond the immediate aftermath, influencing multiple generations connected to Marshall University and the Huntington community. By documenting personal stories alongside historical context, the book highlights the resilience of those who endured the tragedy while preserving the memory of those who lost their lives.
Early endorsements for the book have praised both its research and its compassionate storytelling.
Thomas Larson, author of On Listening & Not Listening: Living in the Age of Noise, wrote:
“In Flight 932 Rachael and Joel Peckham have shaped a compassionate biography of a town’s unburied grief—the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 of Marshall University’s football players, coaches, and supporters in Huntington, West Virginia. The two bring an expertise, consolingly close and historically objective, to this collective trauma. Most impressive is how they present the intergenerational pain of Huntington and Marshall’s American tragedy, which haunts violence-scarred towns after the cameras leave. From portraits of survivor families to a careful gauging of West Virginia’s fabled vulnerability, the book is rare in nonfiction: Two authors, outsiders both, embrace Huntington’s still raw confusion for which the town, in turn, has embraced them.”
Marie Manilla, author of The Patron Saint of Ugly, also praised the work, stating:
“What the Peckhams have done, and masterfully, is make even readers with no Huntington or Marshall or Southern Airways connections care deeply about every soul lost on that plane.”
By combining historical documentation with personal narratives, Flight 932 provides readers with an in-depth examination of one of the most significant tragedies in American sports history. The book not only recounts the events of November 14, 1970, but also explores the enduring legacy of loss, resilience, and remembrance that continues to define Marshall University and the Huntington community decades after the crash.
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