Evening star., 1946-10-27


near Reading, Pa, killing five of the six
members of the crew. There were no
passengers. Consultations remained
grounded for nearly two months while
CAB studied the cause of the Reading
crash, found it, and ordered more than
so changes made.
The story behind the Constellation
investigation is the story of what hap
pens every time an airliner crashes. 1t
is the story of handful Of men who
constitute the CABS accident investiga-
ton division-only in Washington
and 18 in field Offices about the country.
1t is their job to pick up the pieces,
question the witnesses make the labora-
tory tests and the deductions of probable
cause-often when there are no sur
vivors and sometimes when there are no
witnesses. They can call in the Federal
Bureau of Investigation or the National
Bureau of Standards to help, but their
work isthat of master detectives.
Sometimes, as in the case of the
Reading crash, they come up with a
conclusion which seems to run counter
to all the testimony. All witnesses to
that thought fire in one of the planes
four motors was the cause. They dis
agreed as to which motor. but the
dominant opinion, including that of the
pilot who survived, was the No. 3 motor,
the one on the right wing nearest the
fuselage.
Cause Is Discovered.
That wasn't the cause as exhaustive
laboratory tests showed. The cause was
a faulty connection in the ignition sys-
tenn, which set fire to insulation within
the cabin. The flow of air through
the plane sucked the smoke out so that
it seemed to be streaming back from
the No. engine. That was the plume
of smoke described by every witness.
The backfring they heard was the
harmless effect of throttling down the
No. engine when the pilot himself
was deceived as to the cause. He was
blinded by the smoke or he could have
| landed the craft safely
| There is another case which indi-
Gates what CAB accident investigators
nesses
Eastern Airlines Flight AZ, Miami to
| New York, just about a year ago fell
| into swampy forest near Florence,
| S. c.. shortly after o'clock in the
morning. No one saw it, no one heard
it, and all 10 passengers and the crew
of three were killed. The airplane
itself was destroyed.
| They had hardly anything to work
with, but the CAB investigators evolved
plausible explanation of what hap
pened Again it was fire. The only
thing they couldn't discover was who
or what started it.
This was one of the accidents in which
| weather was contributing factor Capt.
John o. King, who had more than 10000
| hours in the air, revved his motors at
the Miami Airport in the light of new
moon little after o'clock September 7,
1945. Nothing much happened until he
was over Raleigh, N. c., a scheduled
stop, and found the weather closing in
on him. The companys dispatcher au-
thorized him to proceed on to Washing
| ton or Baltimore.
But he turned around and headed for
the nearest open airport, at Florence,
S. c.. His radio message was not clearly
| received because of static. In the light
of subsequent events he must have made
his decision because he had discovered
fire in the airplane, but all that was
heard was that he wanted to land at
Florence. He didn't make it by 6 miles,
and crashed in the swamp.
Story Is Deduced.
Seventy feet above ground, he struck
two pine trees, one of which ripped out
| the bottom of the cabin. The plane
continued on, trees and brush tearing
away bits of its structure. When it
came to rest less than 200 yards from the
trees, what was left of it burned, gaso-
line feeding the flames.
But more than mile from the pine
trees, CAB investigators found bits Of
the plane and its contents. Laboratory
examination of them showed that they
came from the rear end of the plane
the lavatory, buffet and baggage COM
partment Along the path were frag-
ments of insulation, luggage and paper
napkins which Stewardess Gertrude
Graham would have placed on the
breakfast trays few hours later.
There was nothing wrong with the
airplane. Its wheels were retracted,
which showed the pilot had not intended
to land where he did; its fire extin-
guishers had been used before the crasn-
The bodies of all passengers were
found in such position that the in
vestigators deduced they had all crowded
into the companionway between The
passenger compartment and the crews
quarters in the nose.
1t didn't seem possible that so many
people could be jamned into so little
space But the investigators tried it
on another ariplane of the same sort
a DC3-and found that they could.
Then it became crystal clear. In the
10 minutes that elapsed between the
time Capt. King communicated by radio
with the dispatcher who cleared him to
Washington or Baltimore the barely
heard message which told of his attempt
to return to Florence, fire had broken
out in the cabin. The crew and pass
engers had attempted to put it out.
Failing, after using up the fire extin-
guishers, they had huddled in the COM
panionway, shut the door, and hoped
against hope that King could make it
back to Florence. He missed it by about
minutes.
Men who fly have, or used to have
| before electrnnic devices made Mind