Page:CAB Accident Report, Eastern Air Lines Flight 42.pdf/2

 At 0205, a radio transmission from Flight 42 was intercepted in which it was indicated that the pilot intended to return to Florence and that he desired clearance to land at Florence Field. Because of unusually severe radio interference, the entire message was not readable and no reason was apparent at that time for the pilot's decision to Florence. Several subsequent attempts by company, CAA and army stations in the vicinity to contact the flight were unsuccessful.

While attempting to return to Florence the aircraft crashed at 0213 in a swampy, wooded area 6 miles ENE of Florence Army Air Field. The Wreckage was located at approximately 1040, September 7.

The Investigation

The accident occurred near the edge of a dense, marshy forest thick underbrush and miscellaneous swamp vegetation. The major portion of the wreckage was confined to a relatively small area of about 100 feet square, however, other parts and contents of the airplane were strewn along flight path over a distance of approximately 7,000 feet northeast of the scene of the wreckage.

Initial contact of the airplane was with two tall pine trees at a point about 70 feet above the ground. One of these trees tore the bottom of the fuselage from just aft of the nose to about the rear of the cabin. The other tree was glanced the left wing. Miscellaneous parts of the airplane and its contents were torn out and fell to the ground. The next contacts of the airplane, which was then in a slightly nose-low attitude, were with several medium size trees, one of which severed the left wing tip. After these contacts, the aircraft assumed increasingly a left wing-low attitude, shedding structural parts and contents while - 2 -