A C-46 airliner carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs football team crashed during takeoff from Toledo Express Airport in Ohio, U.S., resulting in 22 deaths.

The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low-wing, twin-engine aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company publicity. It was used primarily as a cargo aircraft during World War II, with fold-down seating for military transport and some use in delivering paratroops. Mainly deployed by the United States Army Air Forces, it also served the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps, which called it R5C. The C-46 filled similar roles as its Douglas-built counterpart, the C-47 Skytrain, with some 3,200 C-46s produced to approximately 10,200 C-47s.

The Cal Poly Mustangs are the football team representing California Polytechnic State University located in San Luis Obispo, California. The team plays its home games at Mustang Memorial Field, at the NCAA Division I FCS level in the Big Sky Conference. The current head coach is Paul Wulff, who began his tenure in December 2022.

On October 29, 1960, a Curtiss C-46 passenger aircraft crashed shortly after take-off near Toledo, Ohio, U.S. The World War II-era aircraft was carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs college football team home from a game against the Bowling Green Falcons. Of the 48 people on board, 22 were killed, including both pilots, 16 players, a student manager, and a Cal Poly football booster.

Toledo Express Airport, officially Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, is a civil-military airport in Swanton and Monclova townships, 10 mi (16 km) west of Toledo in western Lucas County, Ohio, United States. It opened in 1954–55 as a replacement to the Toledo Municipal Airport, now Toledo Executive Airport, southeast of Toledo. Toledo Express is near the crossing of State Route 2 and the Ohio Turnpike.