Editor’s Note: In the wake of the worst aviation disaster in the United States in years, The Wichita Eagle, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer and other McClatchy journalists from across the country are working to tell the story of each person who lost their life in the crash. Read all of their stories here.

Rescue and salvage crews are continuing to recover bodies and debris in the Potomac River. The mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Wichita was the deadliest air incident in two decades.

A plane flying Wichita State football players to an away game crashed in Colorado in 1970, leaving 31 dead. After Wichita State University football players boarded a flight for their game at Utah State in 1970, a pilot told the 39 others on board that they would take a scenic route near Mount Sniktau, a large mountain in Colorado.

The city had tried for years to host the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and to get a direct flight to the northeast.