Page:CAB Accident Report, West Coast Airlines Flight 703.pdf/1

 File No 1-0005

ADOPTED: September 4, 1963

A West Coast Airlines, Inc., Fairchild, model F-27, N 2703, crashed into Great Salt Lake, Utah, on January 17, 1963, about 1553 m.s.t. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and its three occupants died from exposure and drowning.

This was a pilot training flight of a company captain for a type rating check in the Fairchild F-27. It was being given by a company check pilot. Upon satisfactory completion, the trainee captain was to be issued an F-27 type rating by an FAA inspector who was aboard to monitor the check. During a simulated emergency descent the aircraft crashed into the lake.

The probable cause of the accident was the crew's lack of vigilance, for undetermined reasons, in not checking the descent before striking the water.

This flight was designated by West Coast Airlines, Inc., (WCA) as Pilot Training Flight No. 703. It was for the purpose of rating a company DC-3 captain for F-27 aircraft.

N 2703 arrived at Salt Lake City Municipal Airport January 17, 1963, at 1431 as West Coast Flight 752 from Seattle, Washington, with stops at Yakima, Pasco, Walla Walla, all in Washington; Lewiston, Montana; and Boise and Twin Falls, both in Idaho. The flight had been uneventful and there were no carryover discrepancies entered in the aircraft's flight log.

After completion of turnaround servicing, N 2703 departed the West Coast Airlines ramp at approximately 1506 with Company Check Pilot Instructor William Harvey Lockwood, Trainee Captain Elmer J. Cook, and FAA Carrier Inspector Buell Z. Davis aboard.

A flight plan was prepared and signed by Captain Lockwood. It listed Elmer J. Cook as the first officer, FAA Inspector Buell Z. Davis as a crew member, and specified that the flight would be in the local area, under VFR conditions, and of 1 hour and 30 minutes duration. At departure Captain Cook occupied the left pilot seat, Captain Lockwood the right pilot seat, and Inspector Davis the observer's (jump) seat.