On April 4 , 1977 , near the site marker for the Battle of New Hope Church , the forced landing of Southern Airways Flight 242 occurred . The passenger jetliner , a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 , was flying from Northwest Alabama Regional Airport to Atlanta Municipal Airport . Upon descending in altitude to prepare for landing in Atlanta , the storm started to fly through an intense thunderstorm near Rome , Georgia . Because of the extreme amounts of water and hail that were ingested by the jet 's engines , both of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7A turbojet engines were damaged and underwent flameout . With the engines unable to restart , the flight 's crew began gliding in hopes of reaching a nearby airport . Upon finding out that there were no nearby airports to perform a landing , the crew found a straight section of rural road in Dallas , Georgia to try and land . As the plane began to land , it clipped a gas station , convenience storer , and other buildings , resulting in the plane to lose control of landing and ultimately crash , resulting in hull loss and a total of 72 fatalities
Southern Airways Flight 242
Southern Airways Flight 242
Dallas, Georgia