OCR Text |
Show PLANE'S CRASH IN GALE TOLD 60-Mile-Hour Storm Hinted as Cause United Air Lines' doomed Maln-llner Maln-llner crashed la Summit county In a SO-mile-an-hour gala, which may have blown It from Rs coarse, according ac-cording to testimony Thursday at a federal Inquiry, As ths hearing opened Its ninth day la tha federal building, ths battle of ths weatherman really was under way. From a mass of technical verbiage, verbi-age, including Isobars, lometers, leeward lee-ward and windward gradients, th vex ef mountain ranges, depth adjacent ad-jacent to surfaces and othsr technicalities, techni-calities, listeners were convinced that high winds were blowing In various directions. J Exactly whore they blew th mo-1 ment th Malnliner crashed, carrying carry-ing 1 persona to death October IT, waa still being debated lata Thursday. Thurs-day. Analysis Beqoested When th hearing recessed at 1 p. m. for lunch, Major R. W. Scb. reader, rea-der, vie president and manager of operations for United Air Lines, summed up the questions In everyone's every-one's mind, still there after hours of testimony, when he asked: "May we have an analysis of weather reports available now, so that by rearresting we may determine deter-mine what weather affected that flight T" The major requested an analysis of weather reports which were available and were received by Pilot Earl D. Woodgerd of th ill-fated ship while he waa guiding his plans from Cheyenne to Salt Lake City. From testimony of C. F. Van Thullenar, associate meteorologist at the Salt Lake City aerologies! station, it was determined that the plane crashed on Humpy ridge In the teeth of a gal approaching 80 miles an hour In velocity from th northwest High Velocity While the ship was winging westward, west-ward, a storm with a cold front was blowing from the northwest to Intersect In-tersect his course. In th storm and Immediately behind It wore winds with velocities up to 119 miles an hour. In th van of th front were th 50- and 60-mile gales. Woodgerd crashed while the cold front was still five to tea miles northwest of his path. According to Mr. Van Thullenar's testimony, two air conditions existed ex-isted that night, on known as a cold front and th other aa an occluded, or warm-air mass, front. Neither of these fronts, however, at any time touched the plan. Woodgerd flew in between them. Most of Mr. Van Thullenar's testimony testi-mony was elicited by questions from Miller C Foster, assistant to ths assistant secretary of commerce, presiding at th hearing, but he was questioned also by a United Air Lines expert and by D. M. Little, (Continued on Pare Seven) tColunoa five! PLANE'S CRASH IN GALE TOLD (ContlniMd rrom Paga Ont) Washington, D. C, chief 'of the U. S. aerological aervice. One Shift Noted According to weather observers stationed at point along the airway, there was only one noticeable shift in prevailing winds that night. It was at Coalville, when the wlnd to the west-northwest between T:41 and 8:41 p. in. Th. observers testifying were George P. Beckett. -Granger, Wyo.; M. E. Walton. Rock Springs. Wyo.. and W. H. Wright, Coalville Mr. Van Thullenar took th: stand after department of commerce weather observers described their observations during the fatal hours the night of October 17 and after a Mexican sheepherder had definitely located a spot 11H miles south-southwest south-southwest of Rock Springs as the point over which a mystery ship passed that night Point Disputed The sheepherder, James Boyles, was camped that night with his employer, Henry Kent, when a plane without visible running lights, they. . .1 TIH.il A i aa,iu, new w viiikw - Lines had contended the doomed plane passed directly over Rock ?piwy anH AiA prt iiit rnrnar across radio beams, as indicated by testimony of the sheepmen. Mr. Van Thullenar based his testimony tes-timony on analysis of weather maps made the day and night of October 17. At that time he was in Fairbanks, Fair-banks, Alaska. |