Page:CAB Accident Report, Northwest Airlines Flight 1.pdf/9

Rh about 2500 feet, with no indication of tail wheel marks. At a point about 300 feet from the end of the usable runway, tire burns indicated that Captain Shank had applied brakes violently in at effort to avoid several windrows of surfacing material approximately 30 inches high, located at the end of the runway. The left wheel came in contact with the extreme left windrow and scars on the blades indicate that the left propeller also struck this windrow. After passing over the windrow, the aircraft headed straight down the runway between the windrows for about 155 feet, at which time power was evidently applied. The plane became momentarily airborne, as indicated by a break in the track marks, and then settled into a barbed wire fence which enclosed the airport. This fence is 675 feet from the end of the runway. The airplane continued on, still on the ground, and 125 feet beyond the fence the left wing and propeller began contacting the ground. The airplane rolled down a slope and plunged into a gully, where the left wing and engine struck an embankment at that projected into a path of the plane. The ship rotated to the left, crushing the nose and pilot's compartment against the embankment, slewed around, and came to rest approximately 1350 feet northwest of the end of the runway, headed in the opposite direction from which the landing was attempted.

Fires which apparently originated in the vicinity of the flares and the right side of the cockpit spreed slowly and destroyed most of the wreckage shortly after the passengers had left the ship.

The Airport

Miles City Municipal Airport is located on a plateau 2626 feet above sea level. It is square sod field of 160 usable acres with two 200 by 4600-foot asphalt runways. (See map, opposite page.) At the time of the accident, extensive construction work was in progress necessitating the closing of the field except for its northwest-southeast runway. This runway was in good condition