'She grabs the controls and pulls the plane down.' Nashville pilot witnessed Pearl Harbor attack from the sky

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Cornelia Fort of Nashville would never forget where she was the morning of December 7, 1941.

On the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, she was flying over Honolulu. The Nashville native was the first woman in Tennessee to have a training license. A student was in control of her plane when out of nowhere the Japanese swarmed the skies.

"All of a sudden they break off, and she sees who they are, and one of the planes flies over her, and they were really close, and so she grabs the controls and pulls the plane down," said Ken Fieth, archivist for the Metropolitan Government Archives of Nashville-Davidson County

Fort went on to speak many times about what she witnessed, including on WSM radio.

"Especially for war bond drives and things like that. She would've gone a long way in aviation," Fieth said.

When the United States entered World War II, Fort helped out. She became part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots better known as the WASPs. Her job was to fly brand new planes — without radio communications or radar — to military bases across the country.

Unfortunately, her career and life came to a tragic end. During a mission, another plane hit her and she crashed. According to her family, Fort was flying with a group of six young male pilots to Dallas. They decided to try flying in formation and, somehow, a collision happened. Fort's left wing broke off. Likely, she hit her head on the metal framing of the plane and was knocked out. Witnesses said her plane went straight down.

"She had over 1,100 hours of flight time. So, when the crash did happen, there was nothing in the report about her as far as pilot error, because she was very familiar with those aircraft," Fieth said.

In her will, which remains in a safe at the Nashville Public Library, she set aside some money for scholarships for other women.