Page:Aviation Accident Report, United Air Lines Flight 4.pdf/14

- 13 - which obviously led to the range station just north of the field. It may be that the pilot, after becoming contact, saw some object ahead which he mistook for some other object and that he altered his course on the supposition that he was too far to the right. What object could have so misled the pilot, however, and how he could have failed to recognize that the course led in the wrong direction, are matters of conjecture.

It is possible that Captain Brown confused that lights of the towers of radio station KUTA with those of the Salt Lake Range station. These towers are about 1.4 miles northwest of the scene of the accident and 1.9 miles northeast of the Salt Lake Range Station. (See map opposite page 6.)

The fact that at 10:57 p.m. the trip reported: "Five miles north, approaching the range station", when, according to witnesses, it was a short distance north of the KUTA towers, indicates the possibility of such an error. However, the KUTA towers are lighted with standard high obstruction lights which are quite different from those of the Salt Lake Range Station. The former consists of flashing red lights on top with steady red lights below, while the latter are steady red lights of much less intensity.

The KUTA towers have only been recently installed and the lights were put into operation on March 28, 1942. The record shows that Captain Brown had made ten trips into Salt Lake between that date and May 1. Seven of these trips were during the hours of darkness so it is reasonable to assume that Captain Brown had become familiar with the lights on these towers.