- 112 -
- 112 - properly distributed with reference to the location of the center of gravity. (7) At the time of departure from Elko, Nevada, for Salt Lake City, Utah, the airplane carried sufficient fuel to permit flight at normal cruis- ing power to Salt Lake City, and thereafter for about five hours, thus making available to Captain Fey a choice between a number of alternate airnorts. (8) Trip 16 first arrived over the Salt Lake radio range station at 3:40 and remained in that vicinity at an altitude of approximately 14,000 feet until shortly after 4:26, when Captain Fey began a let-cow-through procedure. (9) During the period Trin 16 onerated in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, two-way radio communication between United's ground station at Salt Lake and the pilots of Trip 16 was made impossible for substantial periods of tine due to severe static, and at times such static interfered with recen- tion of racio range signals by the pilots of Trip 16. (10) During the period Trin 16 oncrated in the vicinity of Salt Lake City the weath conditions at the Salt Lake City ni mort were extremely variable with ceilings ranging from 400 feet to 2700 feet and visibility ranging from 5/8 of a mile to 9 miles with light to moderate anou flurries ard with varieble northwesterly surface winis ranging from 3 to 7 miles per hour. (11) The weather conditions existing at the Salt Lake City aimort, as described in Finding (20), coincided closely with those forecast by the United States Weather Bureau and United's meteorologist. (12) Shortly after 4:26, Captain Tey proceeded northward from the neighborhood of Salt Lake City and began his descent.
