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

 explosion, and saw an accompanying blaze. She saw what she described as "balls of fire" rolling across the alfalfa and corn fields directly ahead of the point at which the airplane crashed.

Following the procedure previously described, investigators for the Board, who called upon Mrs. Thompson after the hearing, recorded the length of the period during which the said she heard the roaring noise and the crash and saw the "balls of fire" as 19 seconds.

Mr. Richard Thompson, the husband of Mrs. Viola Thompson, stated that he was standing in the kitchen of their home when he was startled by an "awful racket, the motor running just about as fast as I thought it could run". He said that he saw the airplane passing by the house and immediately heard the crash. Both he and Mrs. Thompson testified that they had not seen any lightning or heard thunder immediately preceding the crash. Mr. Thompson subsequently stated to investigators of the Board that he had seen no fire around the airplane prior to the crash.

The testimony of these witnesses is conflicting in some instances but it is set out here without comment. It will be discussed in Part III of this report.