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experienced in aviation. He stated that he saw the plane come out of the clouds in a spiral, make about 1-3/4 turns and head for a pasture about one-half or three-fourths of a mile northwest of his home. He did not observe any falling airplane parts. The other witness, who lives about two miles southwest of Linden, noticed the plane from the window of his home and observed it in "kind of a spin losing altitude very fast"; then, at an altitude of approximately 600 or 700 feet, it appeared to him that the aircraft straightened out and leveled off directly over him. Believing it was going to make a landing in an open field across the road from his place, he ran outside and, glancing up, saw several pieces of the aircraft falling. One large piece fell on his property.
Altitude of the Aircraft at Time of Collision
Captain Penn made the first barometric pressure setting on his altimeter before take-off at Indianapolis and his two changes, one at St. Louis and another after leaving Columbia, were made from forecasts given him at Indianapolis at 8:30 a.m. He did not request this information at any time during the trip but stated that he had instructed Copilot Burrell to get "weather" when he reported to Kansas City. It was while Burrell was preparing to report to Kansas City that the collision occurred.
It is evident that there was a discrepancy of .09 inches between the altimeter Setting of 29.99 inches on the Army C-53, after landing at Kansas City about 11:55 a.m., and the records of the U. S. Weather Bureau, which show the barometric pressure setting at 12:00 noon to have been 29.90 inches.
The difference of .09 inches would indicate that the C-53 was actually flying about 100 feet lower than the indicated altitude when the collision occurred. Lipke stated that just shortly before the collision, upon instructions from Welch, he advanced the manifold pressure from 26½ inches to 28 inches and that while making the adjustment the altimeter recorded 3200 feet. When questioned about recording his altitude he stated that it was "3400 plus
