[2] After the initial impact, the plane banked to the left and continued to strike the approach lights until it burst into flames and scattered the wreckage along Rockaway Boulevard, which runs along the northeast perimeter of the airport.

The victims included American Basketball Association player Wendell Ladner, a member of the 1974 champion New York Nets,[4] and Iveson B. Noland, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.

[2] The accident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which revealed that minutes before Flight 66's crash, a Flying Tiger Line Douglas DC-8 cargo jet landing on Runway 22L reported tremendous wind shear on the ground.

[1]: 3 The NTSB published its final report on March 12, 1976, determining the following probable cause of the accident:[5] The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the aircraft's encounter with adverse winds associated with a very strong thunderstorm located astride the ILS localizer course, which resulted in high descent rate into the non-frangible approach light towers.

However, the adverse winds might have been too severe for a successful approach and landing even had they relied upon and responded rapidly to the indications of the flight instruments.

[1]: 39 The NTSB also concluded that failure of either air traffic controllers or the flight crew to abort the landing, given the severe weather conditions, also contributed to the accident: Contributing to the accident was the continued use of runway 22L when it should have become evident to both air traffic control personnel and the flight crew that a severe weather hazard existed along the approach path.

[1]: 39 The accident led to the development of the original low-level wind-shear alert system by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 1976, which was installed at 110 FAA-staffed airports between 1977 and 1987.

During the investigation, meteorologist Ted Fujita worked with the NTSB and the Eastern Air Lines flight-safety department to study the weather phenomena encountered by Flight 66.