In the early morning hours of January 16 , 1942 , Lombard , her mother , and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air Douglas DST ( Douglas Sleeper Transport ) aircraft to return to California . After refueling in Las Vegas , TWA Flight 3 took off at 7:07 pm and crashed into " Double Up Peak " near the level of Potosi Mountain , southwest of the Las Vegas airport . All 22 aboard , including Lombard , her mother , and 15 U.S. Army soldiers , were killed instantly . The cause of the crash was determined to be linked to the pilot and crew 's inability to properly navigate over the mountains surrounding Las Vegas . As a precaution against the possibility of enemy Japanese bomber aircraft coming into American airspace from the Pacific , safety beacons used to direct night flights were turned off , leaving the pilot and crew of the TWA flight without visual warnings of the mountains in their flight path . The crash on the mountainside occurred three miles outside of Las Vegas
TWA Flight 3
TWA Flight 3
Carole Lombard