Transport: Crash Aftermath

Even before publicity-minded Senator Copeland, chairman of the Senate sub-committee on air safety, jumped into headlines insisting that "fullest knowledge" be given the public of last fortnight's United Air Liner crash in Utah (TIME, Oct. 25), four experts of the Bureau of Air Commerce with three assistants were converging on the scene of the wreck. Chairman of the investigating committee, Milton C. Foster, delayed proceedings two days by traveling to Utah by Pullman. Official findings are not likely to be released for many weeks, but last week the known facts of the accident were:

The "Mainliner" was piloted by a veteran "million-miler" with eight years' experience, most of it on the Cheyenne-Salt Lake City run, noted as a high altitude flyer, a cautious follower of radio instructions, who carefully kept to the right of his radio track. The airliner passed Rock Springs on time at 8:16 p.m., flying normally at 180 m.p.h. Two days later it was found 17 miles off its course—to the left—wrecked on a snowcovered side of a mountain (see cut), both engines and 18 occupants flung far ahead of the ship, Only one passenger tangled in the smashed plane. Time of the crash was fixed at 8:51 p.m. which with the liner's position when found, indicated that the pilot had proceeded in a direct line at full speed to the point where he crashed, that he apparently had perfect confidence he was on his course. His altitude was 10,000 feet, the approved height on his normal course. Two trappers who were nearby at the time of the accident, reported a sudden, violent wind and snow squall. United Air Lines quickly issued a report blaming weather conditions for rendering "the radio inoperative."

Though a shudder ran through the whole air transport business, public confidence was apparently not seriously shaken. Last week's bookings were reported normal. Meanwhile airlines increased their already enormous precautions to prevent a recurrence of last winter's disasters. Schedules were slowed up, deicers fitted, cruising range extended, U.A.L. quickly raised the instrument flying altitude over the mountainous stretch of the "worst U. S. airplane accident'' from 10,000 to 14,000 ft.