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The first officer stated he received his altimeter setting from company radio and the three crew members corss-checked the altimeters when the item was called for on the landing checklist. The flight engineer recalls the first officer resetting his altimeter after receiving a transmission from La Guardia tower. The setting was 29.77. The altimeters were cross-checked again by the first officer when passing the La Guardia range inbound at an altitude of 900 feet. Both altimeters indicated approximately the same.
The first officer stated that after passing the range station the captain momentarily increased the rate of descent to approximately 600-800 feet per minute and then decreased it to about the normal rate of 200 to 300 feet a minute. The flight engineer also noted the captain actuate the autopilot pitch trim wheel in the "down" position just prior to impact. The airspeed was maintained in the range of 135 to 145 knots on the captain's instrument. There was very little throttle movement by the flight engineer; the horsepower ranged from 900 to 1,200. The first officer stated that at 600 feet on his altimeter he called out 600 and an airspeed of 135 knots. He glanced out his right side window, saw some red lights just a little below the level of the cockpit and before he could look back to his instruments to call out "500 feet," they struck the water.
During the investigation, the first surviving crew member to be interviewed prior to the public hearing was Flight Engineer Warren E. Cook. Mr. Cook first stated the captain's drum altimeter read,"between zero and the 100-foot mark on the drum" when the aircraft struck the water, and subsequently, during the same interview, clarified this statement, after being reminded that the drum reads in thousands of feet, to state the aircraft struck the water when the hand of the altimeter was on about 500 feet as far as he could recall. Flight Engineer Cook had approximately 8,700 flying hours, 81:29 hours of which were in Lockheed Electra aircraft, all of which were equipped with drum-type altimeters. He also had approximately 190 private pilot hours in small aircraft.
Later, the flight engineer testified that as he glanced out the captain's side window at about 600 feet on the captain's altimeter, he observed 3 or 4 white lights and thought the aircraft was unusually low. He immediately looked at the captain's altimeter and it was indicating a little above 500 feet when the accident occurred.
Both flight crew members stated that visual contact was never established through the forward windshield. The windshield wipers were off, the landing light retracted and off, flaps in approach position, and the autopilot was still engaged.[1] No warning lights were observed, the aircraft and engines operated normally, and there was no indication of a stall, pitch, yaw, or abrupt maneuver.
Witnesses
The surviving stewardess and four passengers stated that prior to the crash the seat belt sign and no smoking sign were "on." The stewardess had made the
- ↑ American Airlines Electra Operating Manual, Section 3, Page 34, states that: "The before landing check should be made after reporting in range. On instrument approaches, it should be completed prior to cross range or radio fix on initial approach, or prior to leaving a holding point for final approach." The final item on the before-landing checklist is "auto-pilot-off." FAA has not issued any policy directives with respect to the use of autopilots in various types of instrument approaches.
