A civilian flight instructor over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Cornelia Fort became the first United States pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the surprise attack. Her narrow escape from a mid-air collision and subsequent strafing run provided an immediate, firsthand account of the hostilities that officially brought the United States into the Second World War.
Early Aviation Career
Born in Nashville in 1919 to a prominent family, Fort attended the Ward-Belmont School and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1939. Defying the unwritten expectations set for her brothers, she pursued flight training in Tennessee. She became the state’s second woman to earn a commercial license and the first to obtain an instructor's license. Before the war, she moved to Hawaii to work for the Andrew Flying Service at John Rodgers Field.
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On the morning of December 7, 1941, Fort was conducting a training flight in an Interstate Cadet monoplane near Pearl Harbor. While teaching takeoffs and landings, she encountered a Japanese military aircraft flying directly toward her plane. After taking control from her student to maneuver above the attacker, she witnessed the rising sun insignia on the wings. She observed the harbor being bombed before making an emergency landing at the civilian airport, where the runway was subsequently strafed by an attacking pilot.
Military Service and Final Flight
Following the grounding of civilian flights in Hawaii, Fort returned to the mainland in 1942. Recruited by Nancy Love, she became the second member of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the precursor to the Women Airforce Service Pilots. On March 21, 1943, while ferrying a BT-13 aircraft from Long Beach, California, to Dallas, Texas, her plane collided with a craft piloted by Frank Stamme Jr. The impact occurred in Mulberry Canyon, ten miles south of Merkel, Texas. Fort died in the crash, becoming the first female pilot in American history to die while on active duty.
Fast facts
- Born: 1919, Nashville
- Died: 1943, Merkel, Texas
- Education: Sarah Lawrence College
- Occupation: Aircraft pilot
- Military service: Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron
- Burial site: Mount Olivet Cemetery
Questions readers ask
What role did Cornelia Fort play during the Pearl Harbor attack?
She was a civilian flight instructor in the air near the harbor when she witnessed the Japanese attack and narrowly escaped being shot down by enemy aircraft.
How did Cornelia Fort die?
She died on March 21, 1943, during a mid-air collision while ferrying a military aircraft in Texas.
Achievements
- Educated at Sarah Lawrence College
- Worked as aircraft pilot
