At 12:21 pm, the airplane's pilot, Captain Everett L. McMillen, radioed that a fire was in the baggage compartment, which they could not control, with smoke entering the passenger cabin.

With gusts from the canyon floor flowing down the side of the mesa, the crippled aircraft, only 10 feet (3.0 m) off the ground, was pulled out of control and crashed.

[2][3]: 1 Ground observers reported that occupants of the airliner, prior to the impact, were throwing various items out of the cabin door in an attempt to lighten the load as the DC-6 descended over the canyon.

[2][3]: 1 The October 25, 1947, edition of the Bridgeport Post reported: Trailing smoke and flame for at least 22 miles [35 km] before it crashed, the giant ship plowed a smoke-blackened swath for 800 yards [730 m] alongside State Highway 22 [Johns Valley Road] just east of the Bryce Canyon airport.

Everett L. MacMillen of Balboa Island, Calif., the pilot, reported by radio at 12:21 p.m. (MST), a few minutes before the incident that fire had broken out, probably in the airplane's baggage compartment, and that the cabin was filled with smoke.

An American Airlines DC-6 (NC90741), on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago with 25 crew and passengers aboard, reported an on-board fire over Arizona and managed to make an emergency landing in flames at the airport at Gallup, New Mexico.

Unlike the Bryce Canyon crash a month earlier, investigators now had a damaged, but intact aircraft to examine and study.

A cabin heater intake scoop was positioned too close to the number 3 alternate fuel tank air vent.