On January 16 , 1942 , Lombard was a passenger on Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3 with her mother and press agent Otto Winkler . She had just finished her 57th movie , '' To Be or Not to Be '' , and was on her way home from a successful war bond selling tour when the flight 's DC-3 airliner crashed into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas , Nevada , killing all 22 passengers aboard , including 15 servicemen en route to training in California . Gable flew to the crash site to claim the bodies of his wife , mother-in-law , and Winkler , who had been the best man at Gable and Lombard 's wedding . Lombard was declared to be the first war-related American female casualty of World War II , and Gable received a personal note of condolence from President Roosevelt . The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation into the crash concluded that pilot error was its cause
Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3
TWA Flight 3
Clark Gable