[2] All 22 people on board, including movie star Carole Lombard, her mother, Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler, three crew members, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers died in the crash.

Lombard, eager to meet her husband Clark Gable in Los Angeles, was returning from a successful war bond promotion tour in the Midwest, where she helped raise over $2 million.

[3] Upon arrival in Albuquerque, Lombard and her companions were asked to surrender their seats for the continuing flight segment to make room for fifteen United States Army Air Corps personnel flying to California.

[1] After a brief refueling stop at Las Vegas Airport (now Nellis Air Force Base) the plane took off on a clear, moonless[6] night for its final leg to Burbank.

[a] This indicated to investigators that the crew was not using radio navigation to follow the airway (defined by the low frequency range), which would have provided them safe obstacle clearance, but was instead using a compass heading.

On the form, the planned outbound magnetic course from Las Vegas was listed as 218°, which is close to the flight path actually flown by the crew to the crash point.