Page:CAB Accident Report, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 19.pdf/85

  the storm area and made a forced landing under reasonably good conditions.

Power plant failure had no causative relation to the accident.

There was no structural failure prior to striking the ground.

Immediately upon impact the fuel carried in the aircraft (about 400 gallons at the time of striking the ground) caught fire and burned with great rapidity. This was accompanied by an immense burst of flame and the production of rapidly rising currents of air.

Individual parts of the aircraft continued to burn for some minutes before being completely extinguished by the rain which had its full intensity at the point of impact.

The papers and pieces of cardboard found at distances up to 1¼ miles back along the flight path from the point of impact were carried there immediately after the accident by violent rising currents of air caused, in large part, by fire following impact and a light westerly wind.

There was no fire in the aircraft prior to impact.

There was no sabotage.</li>

<li>The airplane was not actually struck by lightning.</li>

<li>The airplane was in some fashion affected, or the pilots disabled, by some effect incidental to a stroke of lightning, such as its mechanical effect on the airplane, or acoustical shock, concussion, or optical impairment of the pilots.</li></ol>