Coming Wednesday: Our 5-part series details harrowing legacy of Eastern Flight 212 disaster

On Sept. 11, 1974, 82 people were traveling on a DC-9 airplane headed to Charlotte when it crashed more than three miles shy of the runway, plowed through a cornfield and a patch of woods, and exploded into an inferno.

The story behind the worst plane crash in Charlotte’s history is as outrageous as it is horrific: Incredibly, the pilots didn’t know Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 was doomed until about one second before it hit the ground.

But it’s also a story that has been largely forgotten in the 50 years since the crash. There is no memorial honoring the day’s heroes, the flight’s 10 survivors or its 72 victims — which included the father and two brothers of late-night comedian Stephen Colbert. Even those who live in nearly the exact spot where the plane carved a fiery, 1,000-foot path through southwest Charlotte are largely unfamiliar with the day’s tragic events.

Through dozens of new interviews with Flight 212 survivors, victims’ families and first responders, as well as reviews of investigators’ reports, the crash site, court records, press coverage and thousands of other documents — many of them previously unreported — Charlotte Observer reporters Scott Fowler and Théoden Janes and visual journalist Jeff Siner have investigated the disaster and its aftermath in unprecedented detail. Their reporting in this year-long project explores the effect of the past 50 years on the 10 survivors as well as the families that lost a loved one on Flight 212.

The first installment of this five-part Charlotte Observer series — “9/11/74: The untold story of Charlotte’s deadliest plane crash” — will be published online Wednesday, Sept. 4, followed by new installments on Sept. 5, 9, 10 and 11. In the print edition, the series will appear in full over consecutive Sundays — Sept. 8 and Sept. 15.