Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania-Central Airlines Flight 143.pdf/32

  About five seconds after the airplane left the ground at the Municipal Airport at Charleston, the right engine failed.

Following the failure of the right engine Captain Wright turned the airplane to the left and flew up a narrow valley for a distance of about two miles before the valley ended abruptly in a ridge covered with timber. Being unable to clear the ridge, Captain Wright stalled the airplane and pancaked it into the trees on the side of the ridge.

PCA had not established adequate procedures to require its pilots to be familiar with the terrain surrounding airports, and Captain Wright was not sufficiently familiar with the terrain surrounding the Charleston Municipal Airport to deal adequately with the emergency with which he was faced.

PCA had not informed its pilots of the maximum power which could be taken under emergency conditions from Pratt & Whitney Wasp S1H1-G engines, and Captain Wright was not familiar with the amount of power which could be obtained from the engine in the emergency.

A tear-down inspection of the engine, together with a complete examination of the fuel system, failed to disclose any reason for the engine failure. Although two small pieces of rag, one 1½ inches long and 1 inch wide and the other 3 inches long and ¼1/4 inch wide, were found in the carburetor grid, subsequent tests revealed that the presence of such rags in the grid would not cause any malfunctioning of the engines. 