Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 19.pdf/74

 proceeding in a normal flight attitude and at a time less than thirty seconds before the plane's impact with the ground.

A previously mentioned, Mr. McGaha and his son both saw lightning in line with the plane's flight and they testified that immediately thereafter they saw the plane dive toward the ground. Mrs. Everhart likewise saw a blinding flash of lightning on the path of the flight which caused her to lose sight of the plane. The young boy, George Pendley, in the house of Miss Virgie Mentzer testified he felt shocks at the moment of the lightning flash and roar of thunder preceding the roaring noise of the plane's motors.

The testimony of a great many witnesses agreed on a sequence of a flash of lightning, or at least the thunder which accompanied it, immediately followed by the roaring sound of the plane's motors apparently ending upon impact with the ground.

Several experts who testified and many data made available to the Board indicate that conditions in the Lovettsville area at the time of the accident were of a nature which could produce very strong discharges of lightning between the cloud which was over Short Hill and the ground. Descriptions of the unusual darkness and other characteristics of the cloud indicate that it could have generated large charges of electricity. Furthermore, it had been raining for some time in the vicinity and the dampness of the earth would have increased its conductivity so that electrical charges from a considerable area of the earth might collect at one point for a strong lightning discharge. Although there is no record of a great number