At 8:12 a.m. PST on the morning of March 3, 1946, the Douglas DC-3 operating the flight crashed into the slope of Thing Mountain, California, during its final leg from El Paso to San Diego.

He was hired by American Airlines three months before the accident and had 3,300 flight hours, 1,000 of which were obtained during his time in the Navy.

The pilots gave routine position reports to air traffic control over Casa Grande, Gila Bend, and Yuma, Arizona.

[5][6] Air traffic control in Los Angeles delivered a clearance of 8000 feet cruising altitude for the flight to the American Airlines radio station in San Diego.

[5] Wreckage of Flight 6-103 was discovered at 1:05 p.m. the same day by a naval aircraft on the eastern slope of Thing Mountain, at an altitude of 4,870 feet, approximately 50 miles east of San Diego.

[5] According to the Civil Aeronautics Board which investigated the accident, "the probable cause was the action of the pilot in descending or permitting a descent to be made, into instrument conditions to an altitude below that required to maintain clearance over Thing Mountain.