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he made the transition from instrument to visual flight after passing the middle marker beacon inbound to the field to complete the landing Visually; He described the landing as smooth and slightly tail low but with a slight skip. He said both the captain and he immediately applied forward pressure on the control column and the aircraft appeared to stay on the ground. According to his statement, the flaps were then raised. The aircraft began an immediate sharp turn to the left and full right rudder was then applied by him and the captain simultaneously. Further, he stated that as the left turn continued, full throttle was used on the left engine and the right brake was applied.
Captain Black stated that the weather was Substantially better than had been reported and that he could see the runway before crossing the outer marker, which is located 4.3 nautical miles from the approach end of runway 23. He said the approach speeds were normal and that the landing was a normal tail-low, power-off, skip-type landing with the wings level.
Captain Black also stated that on initial contact the plane veered about 30 degrees to the left and the wings remained level. He said he immediately "reached for the right rudder" to straighten the aircraft on the runway but found that the copilot had applied full rudder. He said that as the aircraft touched the second time he eased the flaps up, applied forward pressure on the control column, and applied full right brake. According to the captain, these corrective measures had no effect and he then applied full throttle on the left engine. Both the captain and copilot stated positively that the left brake was not used at any tine during the landing.
All of the passengers who submitted statements to the investigators described the landing as hard and bumpy. Several stated that although it was a rough landing they did not consider it unusual. One who had considerable passenger experience described it as the hardest touchdown he had ever felt. Several other passengers who described the landing as hard and bumpy said that they felt two bounces and then the airplane veered Suddenly to the left. In addition, the two tower operaton on duty stated that they could see the landing lights of N 44993 during the approach and touchdown. Although they could not see the airplane, its lights appeared to tilt upward as in a bounce and then began to veer to the left.
It was impossible to determine the exact point of initial touchdown of the aircraft on the runway because of the heavy concentration of tire marks; however, both pilots stated that the first contact was approximately on the old runway numbers.[1] The first tire mark that could be identified as being made by N 44993 began at a point 864 feet from the approach end of runway 23 and 51 feet from the left edge. The nature of the mark left by the tire showed definitely
- ↑ A 400-foot extension had recently been added to the approach end of runway 23 and new numbers painted accordingly closer to the new threshold. The old numbers were still visible in their original location. The runway length including the new extension is 5,600 feet.
