Evening star., 1949-11-10
Airport Tower Chief
1estifies Rios 0kayed
Controllers Orders
tcontinued From First Page }

NCOntlnued From First Page)
the paths of the two aircrafts
approached.
Uncertain on Time.
Mr.. Davis said he stepped up
to the young operator to tell him
to order the airliner out of its
approach when he. heard Mr..
Tigner already issuing this in
struction.
The traffic controller was un-
certain Of the exact time when a
B-25 medium bomber from Boiling
Field made simulated landing
approach to the northeast run
way. He was certain that this
occurred after the P-38 took off,
but he could not be sure if the
b-25 had cleared the airport be-
fore he saw the Bolivian get his
Landing gear down over Alex
andria in what turned out to be
a straight-in approach.
All three traffic controllers who
have testified have been oues-
toned closely on the time the
bomber was over the airport. It
has been reported that the .Bo-
livlan told friends he was con-
fused by an airplane resembling
B-25 and thought he was
cleared to land after he saw this
aircraft lowering to the runway.
The B-25 passed over the runway
at an altitude of 200 feet.
Another Controller Testifies.
Before Mr.. Davis was called,
the board of inquiry heard an
other traffic controller, Robert B.
Union, give his account of what
happened. He was asked to deal
particularly with these aspects:
l. Could MIR. Tigner have
pressed the wrong radio frequency
button just before he tried in
vain to turn the Bolivian P-38
away from the runway to which
the passenger plane had been
assigned in final approach?
2. Could Rios possibly have mis-
taken the BIS for the airplane
he had been ordered to follow
into the airport?
8. How could the P-38, ap-
preaching from above and be-
hind on straight-in course, have
collided with the transport on ap-
proximately the same course, when
the fighter was said to be some
what off on the right and the
airliner had shifted position IN
to tighter left turn?
4. Was there time for the tower
to have warned, the P-38 away
with red light from signal gun
when operators saw he was failing
to respond to frantic orders just
before he plowed into the DC-4?
Reports have been published
that Capt. Rios told friends that
he saw a plane similar tosa B-25
over the runway and assumed this
was the aircraft he was to follow
in for a landing. 49,. -
Tells of Call From B-25.
Mr.. Union said the military
pilots called him just prior to the
tske-off Of the Bolivian fighter
and asked permission to make the
practice pass of the BIS at an
altitude of 200 feet. They reported
they were or 6 miles south of the
field at the time. Mr.. Union said
he cleared the plane for an instru-
ment landing system approach |
after checking with Mr.. Tigner. |
The Boiling flyers soon re-
ported that they saw traffic
ahead and would make regula-
ton turn around the airport for
another approach. Mr.. Union said
he did not know the exact time
of this message nor could he
estimate how many minutes it
was after the P-38 took off at
National.
The traffic controller said he
did not remember watching the
BIS make its low approach. He
said that the time had been re-
corded in the tower as 11:43 when
the BIS pulled away from the
landing area.
Did you transfer control of
the B-25 to another OPERATOR"
MIR. Union was asked.