nm north of the airport. Its correct altitude should have been just below at that time. It continued its descent into the Ohio River valley while crossing the river back to the southern shore. When it made its last turn to the southeast to line up with the runway, it flew into the wooded slopes of the valley 3 km north of the runway threshold in poor visibility, at an altitude of 225′ below the runway's elevation. It then exploded and was engulfed in flames. Of the 62 people on board the aircraft, only four people (one flight attendant and three passengers) survived. One of the survivors was Israel Horowitz, an American record producer. Investigation The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident. CAB investigators concluded that the aircraft was working normally and fully under the control of the pilots at the time of the crash. The aircraft was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder. The flight data recorder showed the aircraft descended through in the last 42 seconds before impact, a normal rate of descent for the landing phase of operation. The CAB determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilots' failure to properly monitor their altitude during a visual approach into deteriorating weather conditions. It was later believed that the following factors might have contributed to the crash: Lights from the houses in the Ohio River valley, located below the altitude of the airport, may have conveyed an illusion of runway lights. The flight crew may have been confused about their true altitude, due to misinterpretation of the aircraft's drum-type altimeter after descending through 0 feet (relative to the airport altitude), or they may have had their hands full controlling the plane in severe weather and simply failed to notice the readings on the altimeter. A late departure from New York and the deteriorating weather at Cincinnati may have put pressure on the flight crew. Despite the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, the flight crew chose to make a visual approach to the runway. Aftermath The estate of Samuel Creasy, one of the passengers who died aboard Flight 383, sued American Airlines for wrongful death. American Airlines responded by filing a third-party complaint against the Federal Aviation Administration and the Weather Bureau, in an attempt to shift liability for the crash to meteorologists and air traffic controllers for failure to warn the pilots of inclement