Page:CAB Accident Report, Eastern Air Lines Flight 5.pdf/4

 full-feathering propellers. This model aircraft and its equipment had been approved by the Civil Aeronautics Administration for air carrier operation over routes flown by Eastern with 21 passengers and a crew of three. The airplane had been certificated for operation with a standard weight of 24,400 pounds and a provisional weight of 25,200 pounds, without de-icer equipment. At the time of the departure of Trip 5 from Washington, D. C., the weight of the airplane was 25,156 pounds.

The airplane and its equipment had received the overhauls, periodic inspections, and checks which are provided for in company practice and approved by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Eastern's Trip 5 of October 9, 1941, originating at LaGuardia Field, New York, New York, and operating as a scheduled air carrier flight from New York to Miami, Florida, with scheduled intermediate stops at Washington, D. C., Charleston, South Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, and West Palm Beach, Florida, was due to depart LaGuardia Field at 9:00 p.m. and took off at approximately 9:05 p.m.

Prior to departure from LaGuardia Field, the captain, with the dispatcher and meteorologist, made a study of the weather conditions prevailing over the route. He then prepared a flight plan for the first leg of the flight to Washington, D. C., which called for cruising at 4000 feet contact. The flight arrived at Washington at approximately 10:30 p.m. The flight over that portion of the route was described as routine.

Another flight plan was prepared at Washington National Airport, Washington, D. C., for the next leg of the flight to Charleston, South Carolina. This flight plan called for cruising at 6000 feet. Authorization for instrument flight was approved by Airway Traffic Control at Washington with Raleigh, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, as alternates. At the time of departure from Washington, 10:50 p.m., the airplane carried a fuel supply of 800 gallons of gasoline and 44 gallons of oil, which was sufficient to permit flight at normal cruising power to Charleston and thereafter for about five hours and twenty minutes,

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