Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 19.pdf/17

 After the hearing, the Board's investigators again questioned Mr. Vincell and he stated that the airplane was silver and very bright. He said that he could see the landing wheels extended below the airplane and the windows of the cabin and that the sound of the airplane as it passed over was smooth and not very loud, with no drumming.

Mr. Charles Bailey testified that he was standing near his home which is located on the west side of Short Hill about one-half mile from its base (the scene of the accident is on the east side of Short Hill, 2½ miles east of Mr. Bailey's home) when he saw what he described as a three-motored airplane cross over Short Hill at a low altitude going west and make a sharp left turn back east. He stated that he could see the landing wheels of the airplane and noticed particularly the revolving propeller in the nose motor. Shortly after seeing this airplane turn back over the mountain, he heard a loud roar of motors and a crash. He testified that at the time he saw this airplane a storm was approaching from the west.

Mrs. Lydia Jacobs, who lives about 300 yards west of the scene of the accident, testified that she was sitting in her home at approximately 2:30 on the afternoon of August 31, 1940, when she saw a "flash of lightning", heard a "hard clap of thunder", and then heard a noise which she described as a "siren" or "scream". She then went to the door looking out in the direction from which the noise came and saw what looked like "a fire in the sky" or a "a streak of fire" or "a burnt up building floating through the air". She described, the flame as "blue looking". Then an explosion occurred which jarred her almost off her feet. She testified that the object went through the air from southeast to northwest