Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania-Central Airlines Flight 142 (1945).pdf/1

 Docket No. SA-102

C I V I LA E R O N A U T I C SB O A R D

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT

Adopted: March 19, 1946

PENNSYLVANIA-CENTRAL AIRLINES-MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA, APRIL 14, 1945

I. The Accident : Pennsylvania-Central Airlines' Flight 142 en route from Pittsburgh to Birmingham crashed against the west slope of Cheat Mountain seven miles east-northeast of Morgantown, West Virginia, about 1700 ENT, on April 14, 1945. All 17 passengers and three crew members were fatally injured and the Douglas DC-3 was destroyed by impact and fire.

II. Description of the Flight : Captain Harold Houston Jones, PCA pilot and captain of Flight 142, contacted the Flight Advisory Service of the CAA at Pittsburgh about 1350, April 14, 1945, to check the weather between Pittsburgh and Birmingham. He specifically asked the opinion of the Flight Advisory Meteorologist as to whether he should pass up Morgantown, West Virginia, a scheduled stop at which landings were authorized only if the weather was above the minimums of 1000 foot ceiling and one mile visibility. He was informed by the forecaster that a cold front was in the vicinity of Morgantown and that the present ceiling of 2500 feet cloud lower to below the minimums behind the front. The forecaster pointed out that ceilings behind the front had been below 1000 feet and that there would be little reason to expect otherwise at Morgantown. The record indicated that Captain Jones read the route