Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-04
Air Controller
Knew 7 Planes
Were Meeting
No Reason to Worn
Croft, Traffic Mon
Tells Crash Probe
BY CHARLES YARBROUGH


An air traffic controller in
Salt Lake City was aware that
two airlinerS were on converging
courses less than a half hour
before they collided and plunged
into Grand Canyon.
Lynn McCreary, the air con-
troller, himself a pilot with $500
hours, today told a Civil Aero
nautics Board inquiry into the
crash which killed 1913 persons
that he was aware of the con-
verging aircraft at 11:13 am.
INST. Clocks found in the
wreckage showed an average stop
of 1888 am.
Asked why he did not advise
both planes. he replied;
II believe that question has
been answered. There was no
reason to advise them"
Virtually No Help
In testimony yesterday the
Civil Aeronautics Administra-
tons top controller said that
aircraft flying out of controlled
air space received virtually" no
help from ground controllers.
The Nations present air traf-
f1c control system is virtually in
capable of preventing another
Grand Canyon disaster, David
Thomas. acting chief of the
CAA's airways traffic control,
indicated.
When the two planes, United
Air Lines Oct and a Trans
World Constellation. collided
over the canyon June 80 they
were off established airlanes.
What assistance does a pilot
have in controlling air space?
Virtually none," replied Mr..
Thomas.
Flying off airways is a not
uncommon practice, and before
his testimony was completed,
Mr. Thomas declared:
ITO the extent of my knowl-
edge, neither flight was in any
violation of company rules and
civil air regulations"
The hearing into the cause of
the worst crash in the history of
commercial aviation went into
its fourth day today.
Study Altitude Issue
The seven-man panel was
questioning a long list of air con-
trollers with basic purpose of
determining why the United Air
Lines plane was not advised that
the Constellation was flying in
the same area, at the same alti-
tude and expected to be over the
same check point at the same
time.
The Constellation knew of the
DC-7. The Trans World pilot
Ihad BEEN told that United was
traffic" because the advisory
was given when Trans World was
denied permission to climb to
$1,000 feet. 1t was the same alti-
tude as the Oct.
Trans World was told of the
OCT. not as an advisory. but as
an explanation as to why the
Constellation was denied the
81 900 altitude. But permission
was granted for TWA to fly 1000
feet on top of the overcast. No
testimony has been presented to
indicate that controllers even
knew that the top of the overcast
was at 10000 feet.
Not in Controlled Air Space
Mr.. Thomas was asked if the
United liner would not have been
given information that TWA was
in the area.
under those circumstances,
what responsibility does the CAA
have to those two aircraft?"
No responsibility. in that it is
out of controlled air space" Mr.
Thomas replied.
He said that a number of years
ago the CAA attempted to pro-
vide such a service, but lin our
experience, to obtain, correlate
and transmit information on the
uncontrolled air space was more
of a workload than handling the
controlled airways," Mr.. Thomas
said.
He indicated that present
manpower and electronic facil-
-