Evening star., 1962-12-25
THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS
Recorder Exposes Invisible Villain

ledSe OI CARBON ulOXlue' 1Alc
instructions also stressed OPEN
ing the release valves to get
fresh air into the cockpit. Had
the pilot gotten around to
that? The technicians couldn't
be positive.
The information Fluet got
from CAB headquarters was in
conclusive. Less than five weeks
before the Mount Carmel crash,
a crew in TWA Contellation
had been partially incapacitat-
ed by carbon dioxide released
into a forward cargo compart-
ment. But nothing definite had
been learned yet on how the
fumes actually affected crews
at various attitudes under vari-
GUS conditions.
Fluet thought he knew but
he still had to prove it. Clark
volunteered to expose himself
to a room filled with carbon
dioxide.
you get slap-happy," he re-
ported later. your mouth gets
thick. You couldn't care less
what happens"
1t was now late August and
the final round of official pub
lie hearings by the CABS board
of inquiry was coming up.
Weeks before, a panel of avia-
ton officials had spent all day
listening to the recordings Of
Capt. Warmers last messages
and had disagreed on what
they heard. One thought the
words were, "There're fumes
Escaping" But to others, the
same words meant "our fuses
stick" or fumes in pit"
The hearings had started
when Fluet sent for DR.. Ludwig
g. Lederer, a top psychologist
who was an expert on aviation
medicine.
I'VE won't tell him anything
so he won't be influenced"
Fluet said to Clark. "We'll play
the recording until he can tell
us something"
DR.. Lederer emerged sweating
and dizzy from nearly four
hours in a hotel room, listen
ing to the same words by loud
speaker and earphones until
they were planted indelibly on
his mind. He described in medi-
cal terms what he had heard
the first two words an agitated
yell, followed by a gasp typical
of a spaSm of the windpipe,
the thick enunciation of the
last two words, emergency de-
scent" His conclusion was un-
mistakable: The pilot and CO.
pilot had been overcome by car
bon dioxide.
One More Question
One more question still had
to be answered. The chairman
Of the inquiry cited testimony
of the plane seeming to come
out of its descent and dipping
one wing and then the other
before the steep bank as it
slaShed into the mountain side.
IF a person was recovering
or partially under the effects
and had been under the effects
of carbon dioxide for several
minutes, do you feel that they
could have flown the aircraft
under such conditions?" the
: chairman asked DR.. Lederer.
Bearing in mind very high
concentrations of carbon diox-
ide and the possibility that you
can become momentarily un-
conscious and then regain con-
sciouSneSs, that is true" DR..
Lederer said. However, you
: will not regain sudden con-
sciousness. You will be groggy
and you might continue doing
what you left off doing with
! out really knowing about it
! and you could go through some
. gross movements that could ac-
| count for that type of flight
! pattern"
Joe Fluet had found his vii
;. lain. Later, after more tests to
determine how fire extinguish-
ing and fire detector systems
could be changed to make Ger
tain that the same type of ac-
! cident could never happen
again, the Civil Aeronautics
: Board made it official. Its final
report concluded:
"The probable cause of
J this accident was the incapaci-
tation of the crew by a con-
centration Of carbon dioxids
gas in the cockpit"
: Joe Fluet works out of WASH
} ington now as chief of CABS
! safety investigation division.
/ Thanks to the answers he
: found at Mount Carmel, carbon
5 dioxide will never again seep
{ into a cockpit to leave pilots
I slumped over the wheel while
S their planeload of passengers
slowly descends to death.
z CONDENSED from "The Federal
Investigators.
g 1852 by Prentice-Hall. Inc.