Salt Lake Telegram | 1935-10-07 | Page 3 | Thories Given for Lost Ship

GIVEN CIVEN Fi FOR LOST SHIP Various theories have been adt advanced ad ad- t as to the cause of the mysterious mys mys- t disappearance of the I Standard Oil company luxury i airliner r l' Some mechanical disaster must have overtaken the plane according J t t to pilots at the municipal airport Otherwise it could not have vanIshed van van- f f shed so completely the they the said Structural defect most agreed t must have been responsible for the i failure of the plane to complete its t flight to Salt Lake City A wing roa may have b broken off A motor broken from its bracing in the forward forward for- for ward edge of oC the wings Some spark ix 1 may have ha ignited the gasoline in the 1 tanks and the resulting explosion t torn the plane to pieces in midair 1 I think it must have been motor trouble a mechanic said The metal in a propeller may have crys- crys The blade broke The resultant resultant re ro- re- re vibration before the pilot could throttle down the motor nUl may have torn it from tho the wing breakIng breakIng break- break Ing the win wing If it had not been for such an ac- ac the pilots were confident a successful forced landing could have been n made c When the last report from the ship J. J Was as received Pilot R. R S. S Allen Aen or Copilot Copilot Cot Co Co- Co- Co t pilot G. G A. A Lenz said they were flying fly fly- ing at an altitude of feet 1 g Such altitude woud have given if the plane a gliding radius more than I t f sufficient to reach an emergency landing ui field ld a pilot said Bc Be here and Salduro there are arc few rough pl places ces where a forced landing would be unsuccessful if iC 1 the plane were not over the lake I t Majority of the searchers believed 1 the plane had come down in the L Great Salt lake According to computations com corn 1 made by pilots and navigators navigators navi navi- t gators for Airlines the most likely I place the palatial office of the skies could have floundered has been somewhere near island Great difficulty In locating the plane would be experienced if it crashed in the lake according to Dr Thomas C. C Adams professor of civil civilL t L engineering at the University of LUtah l Utah Thoroughly familiar with J the lake through his experience as a aI aI aj I j yachtsman Dr Adams said he believed be- be the plane would sink to the ther r bottom v In such an event it could not be beI I seen from the air unless the plane was flying more than 1000 feet above the salty water he said Ac Some fliers expressed the opinion that the plane would not sink if iC it crashed in the lake With the v extra buoyancy of the salt water waler floating of the wreckage would be assured they said t It is believed that the plane had almost exhausted its gasoline supply when i it passed over Salduro In that event the almost empty tanks would as pontoons and float the fuselage of the plane i if it did not break up when striking tho the water f oJ