This was one of two Boeing 727s to crash in the eastern U.S. that day; the other was TWA Flight 514 in northern Virginia, northwest of Dulles airport (250 miles (400 km) to the southwest).

[3] The flight was chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts in Buffalo after the aircraft originally earmarked to transport the team was grounded by a snowstorm in Detroit.

[3] At about 3,500 feet (1,100 m), a large portion of the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer separated due to the high G-forces, making recovery impossible.

Police described the crash site as a heavily wooded marshy area and accessibility was hampered by winter weather conditions including wind and a rain-snow mix.

Believing the readings were true, the crew pulled back on the control column and raised the nose, which caused the aircraft to stall.

The stall was precipitated by the flightcrew's improper reaction to erroneous airspeed and Mach indications which had resulted from a blockage of the pitot heads by atmospheric icing.When investigators analyzed the 727's voice recorder, the recording revealed that the pilots believed that the shaking of the stick shaker mechanism was caused by the airliner reaching the speed of sound, and not a warning that it was going into a stall.