Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 19.pdf/37



From the evidence it appears that during the forenoon of August 31, 1940, there were broken clouds and scattered showers in the vicinity of Short Hill and Lovettsville. Early in the afternoon this broken cloud condition changed to a solid overcast extending at least 4½ miles east of the scene of the accident. At about 12:30 p.m., heavy storm clouds were seen around Short Hill. It was impossible to reach a definite conclusion as to the length of this storm area in a northerly and southerly direction. The pilot of the Luscombe who attempted to fly through this area to Pittsburgh at about 12:30 p.m. estimated that the storm extended about 50 miles south of Lovettsville and an unknown distance to the north. He attempted to skirt the storm to the north and proceeded in that direction to a point 5 miles northwest of Myersville, Maryland, about 20 miles north of Lovettsville, without reaching the northern limits of the storm area.

One person from whom a statement was taken after the hearing stated that at about 2:25 p.m. on August 31, 1940, he was at Bluemont, Virginia, which is about 15 miles southwest of Lovettsville, and that the southern limit of the storm area appeared to be just south of Bluemont. He said that the storm was proceeding slowly in a northeasterly direction up the Shenandoah Valley and that he could see it extending far to the north. Upon the basis of the evidence available to us, it appears that at about the time the accident occurred, the southern limit of the storm area was about 15 miles southwest of Lovettsville and that the northern limit was at least that far and probably much farther to the north.

At about 2 p.m. on August 31, 1940, an extraordinarily heavy rain began to fall along Short Hill. This rain gradually spread during the afternoon in