The passenger, Xu Zhimo, was intending to attend an architectural lecture given by the well-known architect Lin Huiyin in Beiping.

After the plane passed the waypoint in Changqing District, the pilot headed to the northwest for the target airport.

Seconds later, the aircraft hit the peak of what is now called West Mountain below the summit, about six kilometers from Dangjiazhuang Railway Station, and broke off its right wing.

The Detroiter crashed into the valley below and disintegrated, resulting in a series of fire and explosions, killing two of the three on board instantly.

The Government of the Republic of China claimed that the aircraft crashed into Mount Beida, where they erected a tomb to commemorate Xu.

The investigation established that the crash site of the Stinson Detroiter was at West Mountain, which is east of Changqing District in southwest Jinan and one kilometer from the railway, at an elevation of 150 meters.

The crash of the Detroiter was witnessed by a patrol police officer, who immediately rushed to the scene along with some local residents.

When the rescuers found the wreckage, they discovered the bodies of the passenger and captain, with debris engulfed in flames.

Xu, though not seriously burnt, had suffered from fatal cerebral trauma as well as fractured legs and several cuts on his body.

The three bodies were later transported back to Jinan, and Xu was eventually buried at Mount Beida, which local government had mistaken as the crash site.

Previously that year, a Fokker F-10 had crashed in Kansas in the United States due to a structural failure of the aircraft's wing.

Witnesses reported that the plane was flying dangerously low and was circling in the air seconds before the crash, suggesting that the pilots had difficulty finding their route.

Investigators hypothesized that the pilot descended the aircraft beneath the minimum safety altitude while attempting to seek their target, Wujiapu airport.

A popular version of the crash claims that the night before the crash, the Northeast Army of the Republic of China, in which Wang Geng had served, received a secret telegram which instructed the special agents to destroy a mail plane leaving from Nanjing for Beiping.

Lin Huiyin collected a piece of wreckage from the crash scene and preserved it at her bedside in memory of Xu throughout the rest of her life.