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Show MAIL PILOT KILLED IN DENSE FOG Plane Crashes Into Rocky Ridge On S. L., Flight. OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. -9 (U.R) Failure to judge his altitude al-titude by 10 feet in a blinding blind-ing fog was blamed today- by investigators for the death of Claire K. Vance, noted pioneer' pio-neer' airmail pilot, whose wrecked plane was found on Rocky ridge last night after '24 hours search. Vance hopped off from Oakland air port at 11:45 p. m. Saturday on his regular flight to Salt Lake , City. Less than 20 minutes later, , 'vhile flying through a dense fog, his plane crashed at full speed into in-to Rocky ridge. Vance was cremated cre-mated in the burned wreckage, and the cargo of mail was destroyed. Flying Too Low-Investigators Low-Investigators said the plane had struck 10 feet below the crest of the ridge. Had he been flying 10 feet higher, they said, the craft would have cleared the peak and been safely over the Sacramento valley. Vance, an aviator in the World war and inventor of the "flying wing" type of plane, had made 3,500 trips over Rocky ridge in his 14 years of service as an airmail pilot,, C. E. Johnson, vice president of United Air Lines, said. He was the hero of many near tragedies in the air and was regarded as one of the most . capable and experienced experi-enced airmail fliers in the country. Mrs. Vance collapsed when informed in-formed of her husband's death and was under care of a physician today. Vance also is survived by, two sons and a daughter, Richard, six weeks old; Robert, 5, and Jacqueline, Jac-queline, 4. |