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Show RADIO FAILURE INDICATED AT CRASH HEARING i i Witnesses Describe Plane Wandering in Blizzard Thirteen witnesses Wednes-I day painted a picture of a lost luxury airliner, apparently with a useless radio, cruising aimlessly through a terrific storm, then crashing on snow-swept snow-swept Humpy ridge in northeastern north-eastern Summit county of Utah. The rilcture waa drawn from witnesses at a department of commerce hearing Into causea that sent a I'nlted Air Lines Main-liner Main-liner to destruction with 19 aboard the night of October 17. It opened Its second day In a amoke-filled room In the federal building. Star witness of Wednesday morning's morn-ing's session was Ed Olsen, Fort Bridger. Wyo.. automobile mechanic, who swore he saw the plan battling bat-tling the terrific storm, watch It appear out of the southeast coming north, then swing west toward the Leroy. Wyo., airport. But the ship passed over th emergency airport and safety, to go to its doom. Testimony I'nshaken Questioners could not shake his testimony. Static, which fouled radios of many residents of the Fort Bridger vicinity, also played a part in this picture of tragedy. Of the 13 witnesses who testified, Joe Birleffl, automobile dealer; Harry Har-ry W. Phister, Mrs. Frances FilUn and Mr. Olsen, all of whom said they either saw or heard th plane circling aimlessly during a driving blizzard, also testified that static made the radios in their homes useless between S and 10 p. m. on the fatal night. A bureau of air commerce expert, C. W. Larson. communicaUona supervisor su-pervisor of the fifth air navigation district, however, testified that although al-though radio directional beams apparently ap-parently were functioning properly (Continued on Psg aevtn) i Column One l ' ( Witnesses in Probe of Air Tragedy m i an,.. i mil in s s i miss , ,. , ,. sji.iu vQ 4 ' J A i- - ' -V-:,f J :L' . WAITING TO TESTIFY IN PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATION Front, R. A. Reese, left; L. B. Clark; rear, Milton Johnson, left; Charles Stanley 1 1. RADIO FAILURE HINTEDJN QUIZ "'oritinued from Past On.) that night, thcrs were numerous Interruptions In-terruptions In teletypewriter aer-M aer-M e between 0 and p. m. Horror Scene Keloid XI. Hon C. Foster, assistant to the iiint secretary of commerce 1 1 ' ' " ill Ul. hearing, fiea.-ealled -Mr lrson to the stand, then drew pi' lure of the horror scene at the ra.h from six men who got there firt on foot. Then he called reat-rtents reat-rtents of the vinntiy to testify as to tm piane's movements In the air. Mr OLsen said he was lying on ru bed. fully clothed, about :3u P in when he heard a plane. Be-cause Be-cause of the siorm and because It '"v flying so low. he ran outdoors. 1 nrvrr aw a plane that low r furc." he aHid. "It came out of thi- .southeast, heading north, passed over me, then circled west toward the Leroy airport. I saw the red and green lights on the wings. The red light was on the left wingtip." Storm Drscrlbed Mr. Birleffl. Mr. Phister and L. H Thomas of Mountain View, Wyo., described a stormy night that began be-gan with a light rain at 6 n. m chsnited to a dbwnpour. then to a howling bliuard, sweeping out of the west. The board of inquiry, consisting of Mr. Foster. Byron M. Jacobs and Jesse W. Lankford of the bureau bu-reau of air commerce; J. E. Carn. director of the state aeronautical commission, and D. W. Hammond, chairman of the commission, attempted at-tempted to learn by questions whether Ice formed on the plane's wings. Testimony indicated it did not form. Bob Bergesen. pilot, who first found the ship from the air: Pilot Ralph J. Johnson and Bill McDou-gall. McDou-gall. Telegram reporter. In the ground party that first reached the plane, testified they found no evidence evi-dence of ice having formed on the wings. Charles Stahley, also a member of the first ground crew, and Mr. Mc-I'ougall. Mc-I'ougall. testified that ice had formed on trees in the vicinity and had not melted and that therefore If ice had formed on th ship's wings it also should not have melted. Pilot Bergesen said the flight log of the plane, which was recovered, indicated temperatures, but did not indicate les on the wings. Members of ths first ground party, which also included Alex Jamison. J. W. Myera and Milton A. Johnson, guides, told of the destruction destruc-tion which met their eye when they Came upon the wrecked sky giant. Exhibit No. 13 In documents entered en-tered as evidence was two maps drawn at the crash scene, showing how ths ship lay, where the motors w-ere found, the first point of impact im-pact and scattered wreckage. Mr. Larson's testimony included the fact lhat on October 15, two days before the crash, the radio frequency fre-quency of the direction finding beam had been changed from 248 kilocycles to 382 kilocycles, after the change notice had been duly sent to airlines and all concerned. A flight check of the radio beams October 19. 23 and 24 showed its direction di-rection had not been altered in any way. Bureau of air commerce reports re-ports the fatal night indicated the radio beam had been functioning perfectly and that radio contacts between ground stations wer not Interrupted. Plane Waa Circling Testimony of the Fort Bridger witmrsse, and especially that of Mr. Thomas of Mountain View, was that the plane apparenty was lost and that it was circling widely In that vicinity. They all agreed there was a terrific storm and wind of unusual un-usual velocity. Snow and Ice were crusted on th west side of buildings build-ings and signs the following morning, morn-ing, they said. Mr. Birleffl was positive in his statements that the plane circled at least "all of five minutes or more, tiat s why I paid particular attention atten-tion to it." Fifteen witnesses have testified sine the hearing began late Tuesday, Tues-day, when Major R. W. Schroeder, vice president and manager of operations op-erations for United Air Lines, and W. E. Kline, maintenance super-1 visor and acting director of the ' fifth air navigation district for the bureau of air commerce, drew a picture of the airline's working personnel per-sonnel and of the bureau's airway I aids on th ground. Aids between Salt Lake City and Cheyenne included 3T beacon lights, 10 Intermediate landing fields, seven radio ranges (direction beamsi, six teletype; drops and various inter- j mediat voice transmitters. Wednesday's witnesses, and the! order in which they appeared, were 1 Mr. Larson, Milton A. Johnson. Mr.' Bergeson, Mr. Myers, Ralph J. John-: son, pilot; Mr. Stahley. Mr. Jamison, Jami-son, Mr. McDougall, Mr. Thomas, i Mr. Birleffl, Mr. Phister, Mrs. Fillin j and Mr. Olsen. M. G, Wenger, postal inspector, I criticised United Air Lines for not having an official at the scene of th crash until noon the day after th accident, saying. "There would have been nobody to protect the mail had wa not arrived at day-' break." I |