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the left in an effort to avoid the Braniff airplane. The TWA airplane swerved to the left, and, although its right wing had been raised by the operation of the control wheel, this wing struck and passed over the left wing of the other airplane. The collision occurred at approximately 2:25 a.m. After the TWA plane had been brought to a stop some distance beyond the point of impact Captain Boqua taxied back to the ramp. Immediately after the impact Captain Powers stopped the engines on the Braniff airplane and then waited for ground personnel to come to his assistance before moving it. Captain Boqua stated that he had apparently mistaken the tail light of the Braniff airplane for one of the temporary boundary lights on the west side of the airport, near which he was taking off.
An examination of NC 1941, the TWA aircraft, disclosed that the right wing had been seriously damaged. The wing covering was badly wrinkled and parts of the wing structure extending backward from the leading edge were broken or crushed. The right aileron was also broken. There was apparently no further damage. Examination of NC 25667, the Braniff airplane, revealed that the left wing tip and aileron were broken off and that the left wing covering was severely wrinkled. A check was made of its right navigation light, tail light, and landing lights. All of them operated normally. There was no damage apparent other than to the left wing.
The 2:35 weather sequence report for Wichita indicated instrument weather, ceiling estimated as 1600 feet, lower broken clouds, visibility 2 miles, mild thunderstorm, heavy rain, temperature 64, dew point 64, wind southeast 30 m.p.h. with strong gusts, altimeter setting 29.75.
