James Frederick Cox Jr
April 4, 1941 – December 1, 1974

James “Jim” Cox died in the crash of a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 which took place near Stony Point, New York on December 1, 1974.  Details of the crash of Flight 6231 are presented below.

James was born on April 4, 1941, in Conrad to James and Florence Cox of Kevin.  He was the second of two children.

After graduating from NTCHS in 1959, Jim attended Montana State University, graduating with a degree in engineering.  While attending MSU, Jim married June Johns in September of 1961.  

Jim went on active duty in the Air Force after graduation, attending Flight School.  He was a Vietnam Veteran.  After leaving active duty in the Air Force, Jim and June moved to Seattle area where Jim worked as a pilot for Northwest Airlines.  While Jim had left active duty in the Air Force, he remained as a Captain (and pilot) in the Air Force Reserve.

Jim and June had four children, Scott, Jill  and twins Joy and Jean.

Jim was interred at Renton, Washington.

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Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231 was the fatal crash of a Boeing 727 on December 1, 1974 in Harriman State Park near Stony Point, New York, just north of the New York City area. The Northwest Airlines 727 had been chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts professional football team in Buffalo in western New York.

All three crew members on board died when the aircraft struck the ground following a stall and rapid descent caused by the crew's reaction to erroneous airspeed readings caused by atmospheric icing. The icing occurred due to failure to turn on the pitot tube heating at the start of the flight. This was one of two Boeing 727s to crash in the United States that day; the other was TWA Flight 514 in northern Virginia, northwest of Dulles airport.

The aircraft had three crewmembers on board. Captain John B. Lagorio, age 35, had worked for Northwest for almost nine years. He had just under 7,500 flying hours flying experience, with just under 2,000 hours total time flying the Boeing 727. 24 The first officer, Walter A. Zadra, 32, had been working for Northwest for almost seven years. He had about 4,700 hours flying experience, of which two thirds was as a second officer (flight engineer). His Boeing 727 experience amounted to about 1,250 hours, but only 46 of that was as a pilot – the other 1,200 hours experience was as a flight engineer. 24 The second officer, James F. Cox, 33, had been with the airline for almost six years and had 1,600 hours experience as a Boeing 727 Flight Engineer.