At 06:56 of the following morning, the Swift aircraft departed Denton, Texas on a VFR flight for Dallas–Love Field, and as it neared its destination the pilot contacted Love tower for landing instructions, requesting a "straight-in" approach.

[2][3] The airliner's flight crew continued the approach and landed without incident; the DC-6 was almost completely unscathed except for minor damage to a fuselage-mounted radio antenna and a propeller.

The wreck subsequently caught fire and had to be extinguished by Dallas firefighters; however, the blaze was attributed to leaking avgas ignited by a cigarette discarded by a spectator, and not to the crash itself.

The Swift's pilot radioed the Love tower to request a straight-in approach, but he did so much closer to the airport than recommended by flight regulations, he did not state his position, heading, or speed, and he failed to establish two-way communication to obtain a landing clearance.

If a pilot could not establish clear contact with the tower, visual flight rules stated that he should only continue the approach with extreme caution under the assumption that conflicting air traffic was in the area.

From the viewpoint of the DC-6 flight crew, the Swift may have been in a blind spot created by the DC-6 nose structure; if not, the small silver-grey plane would be hard to see silhouetted against the ground.

[2] A contributing factor was "errors in judgment" on the part of a Love Field controller who initially instructed the Swift's pilot to turn into the path of the DC-6 upon spotting the second aircraft.