On August 31, 1940, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19, a new Douglas DC-3A, was flying from Washington, D.C. to Detroit with a stopover in Pittsburgh.

Numerous witnesses reported seeing a large flash of lightning shortly before it nosed over and plunged to earth in an alfalfa field.

With limited accident investigation tools at the time, it was at first believed that the most likely cause was the plane flying into windshear, but the Civil Aeronautics Board report concluded that the probable cause was a lightning strike.

At the time of the crash, the FBI was investigating Sen. Lundeen's ties to George Sylvester Viereck, a top Nazi spy working in the US to spread pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic propaganda.

The aircraft was carrying 21 revenue passengers, a single flight attendant, and a deadheading airline manager riding in the jump seat in the cockpit.