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ballooned the aircraft into the air and altered its heading.
14. At the top of the rise Captain Bryant, even though his forward visibility was almost zero, elected to continue his landing rather than to apply power and circle the field, and the aircraft contacted the ground to the left of the runway intended to be used and rolled into a levee which borders the airport along its eastern boundary.
15. Power was being applied to the left engine at the time the aircraft contacted the levee.
16. Captain Bryant was flying the aircraft during its approach to the airport and during the landing.
17. Aircraft NC 15592 and all its equipment were functioning normall until contacting the levee.
18. The lighting facilities installed at Lunken Airport are inadequate to provide a means of maintaining an aircraft in line with a runway after passing the boundary of the field under conditions of restricted visibility.
Probable Cause
On the basis of the foregoing findings and the entire record available to us at this time, we find that the probable cause of the accident to the aircraft NC 15592 (American Airlines' Trip 20) on March 10, 1941, was the error in judgment on the part of the pilot in continuing an attempt to land during a period of restricted visibility from the cockpit due to heavy precipitation. A substantial factor, increasing the pilots difficulties and the liability of error in judgment, was the inadequacy of the system of runway lighting on Lunken Airport, Cincinnati, Ohio.
