The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota • Page 19

Page Eighteen THE DAILY REPUBLIC, Mitchell, S. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 198T Flighl Of The Unknown' Ends In 128 Deaths 'shot "PrwtoB" at 8.70* feet and signal from the Colt's Necfc. N.J., dead pilot, claiming should properly utilized the equipment. a speed of 411 mp.h.

Her top radio beacon, that led them offjhave received continuous radar personnel and facilities available, at the time should have course while their Instruments observation from Idlewild. we have been shocked at ibeen 207 m.p.h. She still was bar-, showed they in the "Pres- F. McErlane, UAL vice president some of the things we have (rellng along at 946 m.p.h. when ton" pattern.

Was UAL's Capt. for legal affairs, said i learned since this Investigation (the crash came. But why? Sawyer thus led astray? "This accident could not have i started." i Three pilots testified to a faulty United vigorously defended Its happened had Air Traffic Control I The last word for the govern- the men on the ground; to the plane, who was a million elephants." hut the from Wayne He.l arshot, i responsible for the plane's are seldom seen in Luang a Federal Aviation Agency official. He was asked of UAL 826, "The Unknown" of last Dec. 16: "If the air traffic controller WM gallon?" Replied Hendershot: not providing radar vectoring! Laos It known the "land ofcial festivals.

Prabang, the royal capital. Palace elephants roam nearby jbut are brought into town only for New Year's ceremonies and spe- ARTHUR EVERETT YORK The (light of "Thp Unknown" began at 9:11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time when Unlled Air Lines flight left Chicago'? O'Hare Field, picked up altitude and headed eastward at a cruising speed of 591 miles per hour. Aboard the sleek Douglas DOT were 77 passengers and a crew of seven, in charge of Capt. R.

H. Sawyer, 46, of Kernel. Calif. They were bound for New York, due at Tdlewild Airport at IMo a.m. were homeward bound for Christmas, and gay gift packages sparkled in the luggage racks of the big United Mainllner.

Thirty-one minutes earlier, at 940 a.m. Trans World Airlines' Super-Constellation flight 266 was airborne from Dayton. Ohio. The four-engine Lockheed airliner carried 39 passengers and five crewmen. in charae of Capt.

David A. Wollam. 39. of Huntington, N.Y. She headed east at 318 m.pJi.

for La Guardia field, due there at 1036 a.m. Like the jetliner, her luggage racks bore bright evidence of the approaching Yule. And so 128 human from three- weeks-old babe in arms to; a man of flew east on a late autumn morning toward a cruel historic destiny. i The date was Dec. 19.

Both flights were uneventful and midmorning. coming in from Phillipsburg. N.J., TWA 266 radioed La Guardia that she was at! 9.000 feet. There was an overcast at the field of 500 feet, visibility; of one mile, and light snow swirl-. Ing down.

There followed a period in which La Guardia. by radar shepherded TWA 266 through the: "Linden" holding pattern over; New Jersey and started her on. her descent rvith the "That appears to be jet traffic: off to your right now, 3 o'clock at one mile, northeast bound." There was no radio response from TWA 266. and her radar 1 a mysteriously vanished from the screen. La Guardia tried with mounting concern to re-es- -tablish contact with the Constella-, tion.

All efforts failed. Meanwhile, UAL 826 had re-, ported in at 14.000 feet over A1-, lentown. to New York Airi Traffic. Control Center at Idlewild and was directed to enter the "Preston" holding pattern. At about 10 miles across Long Island from La the overcast was at 1,500 feet, i visibility was a half mile and: there was light rain and fog.

The "Preston" pattern is a counterpart of the "Linden" pat. tern, through which TWA 266 was; passing. Both are rectangular areas in the sky in which planes are held in a circling position one 1 above the other until they are cleared to descend to their airport destinations. The "Linden" pattern is about i five miles north of "Preston." i A plane cannot be tracked by radar after it enters such a pattern. Its blip merges with others because altitude does not register on a radar screen.

Only when the; plane leaves the circling area does its blip regain Identity. After UAL 826 was directed to "Prescon," the control center radioed that It was terminating its radar surveillance, which was to be resumed by Idlewild approach control when the jet left the pattern. Thirteen seconds later, UAL 826 reported to Idlewild approach "United elght-two-six approach Freston at 5.000." The time was 10:33.28 a.m. Idlewild made a routine reply, cot no answer, began its own; frantic series oJ calls In an effort to reestablish radio contact with UAL just as La Guardia was; doing with TWA 266. There then beyan on the ground drama of mounting horror.

La Guardia approach called New York control center to report "All right, now we got troubles, but we're not sure of it. We lost contact with a TWA, two-six-six I believe his number is. He was oil collision course with an aircraft, an unknown aircraft, heading northeast from Preston toward Flattaush. That aircraft now is a mile outside the La Guardia outer marking, heading northeast bound." "The unknown, you still have the unknown in radar contact?" aaked control center. "No, we're not talking to the unknown, but we see him, yes," La Guardia -replied.

TWA 266, whose blip had vanished so suddenly and mysteriously from La Guardia's radar screen was at that moment a tangle of smoking wreckage on the snow- hound earth of Staten Island. All 44 persons aboard were dead. For at 1033.32 o'clock that morning of Dec. 16, "The UAL's had crashed Into TWA 266 about 5,000 feet over Staten Island. While the Constellation plunged to earth.

UAL 826 continued on a course, streaking as "The Unknown" across La Guardia's radar screen. Then the DCS staggered, (ell and cartwheeled Into a crowded section at Brooklyn. It was the worst disaster in the history of aviation -with 44 killed aboard TWA 266. 84 aboard UAL 826 and six more casualties on the ground in Brooklyn, for a toll of 134 deaths. The exact cause of the tragedy may never be determined.

But toward that end, at any rate, on Jan. 4 there began in a ballroom of the St. George Hotel in Brook. lyn the biggest hearing in the history of the Civil Aeronautics Board. It came to an end last Friday, Jan.

13, but it is expected to take months to assess the testimony and arrive at a finding, if any. There was general agreement on only one thing. UAL night 826 ua.s II nuks off course, going too high and too fast, when the collision occurred. Wnen Capt. Sawyer radioed he was approaching "Preston" at 5,000 feist, he actu- ally was approaching Staten Is' land within seconds oi disaster.

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