Jeff Burkett Defensive Back and Punter for the Chicago Cardinals in the crash of United Airlines Flight 608
On October 24, 1947 October 24 – Jeff Burkett, age 26. Defensive Back and Punter for the Chicago Cardinals. Perished with 51 other passengers in the crash of United Airlines Flight 608. United Air Lines Flight 608 departed from Los Angeles International Airport, California, at 10:23 am on a routine flight and climbed to 19,000 feet (FL190) to Chicago, Illinois. At 12:21 pm, the airplane’s pilot, Captain Everett L. McMillen, radioed that a fire was in the baggage compartment, which they could not control, with smoke entering the passenger cabin. As it descended, pieces of the airplane, including portions of the right wing, started to fall off, and one of the emergency flares on the wing ignited. At 12:27 pm, the last radio transmission was heard from the airplane: “We may make it – approaching a strip.” The next radio message came from the airport tower here at 12:32 p.m. It said, ‘Fire one mile east.’ The ship had gone down at that point.
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