Page:CAB Accident Report, Piedmont Airlines Flight 349.pdf/6

 close to the Earlyvllle and Charlottesv1lle homer locatlons, respectlvely. Further, the 21—degree angle between the loop bearlngs extended from the acc1dent s1te to the radio feellltles subtend an arc equal 1n males to the dlstance between the homers.

Both alrcraft altlmeters were found. The rlght 1nd1cated an altltude of 9,200 feet and was set to a barometrlc setting of 30.h3. The left 1nstru, ment showed about 2,520 feet and a barometrlc setting of 30.h0. The elevation of the accldent locatlon was 2,600 feet. The last altlmeter setting glven the fllghp was 30 h7. Other fllght lustruments were damaged to such an extent that no useful 1nformatlon was obtalned.

An exhaustlve fllght check was made of all of the varlous nav1gatlonal ground fac1llt1es pertlnent to Fllght 3h9. The checks were made to determlne what, 1f any, condltlon existed whlch mlght have led the fllght 1nto the moun— tain, or 1f the fa01llt1es were functlonlng wlthln FAA operating standards.

To thls end nearly 25 hours were flown on the fa0111t1es. The checks were flown shortly after the acoldent and at varlous tlmes, nlght and day, there— after. hhth Board 1nvest1gators aboard, they were flown by the FAA Flight Inspectlon Branch us1ng an espe01ally equlpped alrcraft for the purpose, by the FAA Alr Carrler Branch, and by Pledmont 1n 1ts own equipment. No d1s— crepanc1es were found.

In addltlon, at the request of the Board the Federal Communlcatlons Comm1551on entered the lovestlgatlon. Wlth Speclal equlpment and expert per— sonnel, 1nvest1gatlon was made to determine 1f there ex1sted any ground phenom— ena, 1nclud1ng the operatlon of electronlc equlpment 1n the local area, whlch could adversely affect the normal operatlon of the facllltles. Slgnal strength for proper reception was measured.1n approprlate areas, a search for a reported; unauthorlzed homer was conducted, and the p0551b111ty of spurlous radlo algnals was lnvestlgated. After the work was completed, the spokesman for the FCC team sald nothlng was feund which would preclude or serlously 1mpa1r the normal opera— tlon of the approach feellltles.

An 1ntense search resulted in the flndlng of a serles of groundwitnesses who had heard a low-flylng alrcraft. Because of weather condltlons, con31st— ently described as cloudy and foggy, none had seen the airplane but a fllght pattern based upon the alrcraft englnes‘ sound was revealed. For several reasons the soundpath was attrlbutable to Fllght 3L9. Most 1mportant of the reasons was that the sound proceeded to and stopped abruptly 1n the scoldent area. Other reasons were the 001n01dence of tlme when the alrcraft was heard wlth the estlmated progress of Fllght 3h9, the knowledge that no other known alrcraft operated 001nC1dent wlth the soundpath, and to some degree the corre- latlon between the sound movement and Mr. Bradley‘s recollectlons. Because the path was 8-11 miles west of the alrport, a flnal reason was added when at least three persons on the alrport Spec1f1cally llstenlng for Fllght 3L9 stated they did not near 1t.

The alrcraft was heard by the serles of wltneSSes between 2020—20h5. The flrst of the serles were located 8—10 miles northeast of the acoldent locatlon. One of them, located on high terraln near Glbson Mountaln, stated the aircraft passed over on a westerly headlng and it was so low "1t rattled the trees.” Other wltnesses were peeltloned along a south—southwest line