Flight 7 Is Missing by Ken H. Fortenberry

Author:Ken H. Fortenberry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fayetteville Mafia Press
Published: 2020-07-14T14:00:00+00:00

Nine months after the hearing in San Francisco, investigators in Washington are still mystified by the cause of the crash, and members of the Civil Aeronautics Board are becoming increasingly frustrated with the agency’s failure to determine a probable cause. It’s not that investigators have quit working on the case, it’s just that the time-consuming research has been inconclusive.

CAB Bureau of Safety Director Bakke is keenly aware of the pressure his superiors are facing, and he prepares a memo for the board explaining the delays and recommending what to do and say next. He says the unusual delay has been caused by the investigation into two crucial questions: 1) Did the aircraft attempt to send a distress signal? and 2) Was the crew incapacitated by carbon monoxide poisoning?

Bakke states in a Friday, October 31, 1958, memo that possible tape recordings from the plane were “subjected to extensive laboratory analyses using the techniques of several different institutions specializing in electronic research.” He tells the board that every available technique has been employed in an unsuccessful seven-month attempt to determine if the crew sent a distress signal and, if it did, what the contents of that message were. Investigators conclude that no emergency message was sent from N90944.

He also tells the board that three organizations—the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the School of Aviation Medicine, and the Directorate of Flight Safety Research—have conducted considerable research into the unexplained carbon monoxide, but the issue is still unresolved.

He states that in September the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology “advised us that it was firmly of the view that excessive concentrations of carbon monoxide must have been present prior to impact.”

This means that the crew and passengers ingested the deadly poison while the plane was still in the air. Something mechanical or man-made had caused the fire and smoke inside the airplane, either accidentally or deliberately.

Bakke says his team had been preparing a report for the CAB with that important finding when, on October 16, the institute advised that a recent Navy accident had “disclosed information that again cast doubt on the validity of the Institute’s conclusions.”

Back to square one.

Bakke tells his superiors that although the institute is continuing its research, he believes that “further delay cannot be tolerated,” due to the “unusually large number of requests for the report from the public, next of kin, and from Members of Congress.” He advises the board to adopt the latest revised draft of its probable-cause report—a document that is, to this day, inconclusive and unfinished.

Tuesday, January 20, 1959

“WASHINGTON (UPI)—The Civil Aeronautics Board said today that the crash of a Pan American Airways plane in the Pacific Ocean on Nov. 9, 1957, probably will remain a mystery.

The board said it had too little evidence to determine the probable cause of the tragedy which took 44 lives. The most plausible theory, the report said, was that a propeller or propeller blade tore loose and ripped into the fuselage.”

Among its conclusions the board found that:

The flight was normal and

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