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 FL 450." 3/ The flightcrew had reviewed this data before takeoff and did not call Delta‘s weather facility in Atlanta, Georgia, for any additional weather information.

The flight was uneventful until passing New Orleans, Louisiana. A line of weather along theTexas—Louisiana gulf coast had intensified. The flightcrew elected to change their route of flight to themore northerly Blue Ridge arrival route toavoid ,the developing weather to the. south. This ’change necessitated a 10— to 15-minute hold at’the Texarkana, Arkansas, VORTAC §/ for arrival Sequencing at the DFW Airport.

At 1735:26, the -' airplane's cockpit voice recorder (CVR) showed that the flightcrew received the following Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) 3/ broadcast:

DFW arrival information romeo, two one four seven Greenwich, weather six thousand scattered, two one thouSand scattered, visibility one zero, ' temperature one zero one, dew point six seven, wind calm, altimeter two niner niner two, runway one eight right one seven left, visual approaches _ in progress, advise approach control that you have romeo. ' i -

- ' 'At 1735:33, Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) cleared flight 191 to'the Blue Ridge, Texas, VORTAC for the Blue, Ridge Nine arrival, §/ and to «- begin its descent. T. ., . > _ ‘ . ,

- . At 1743:45, Fort Worth ARTCC cleared flight 191 to descend to ' 10,000 feet, §/ gave it a 29.92 in Hg altimeter setting, and suggested that the flight turn to a heading of 250° "to join the Blue Ridge zero one zero radial inbound and we have a ‘ good area there to go through." The captain replied Z/ that he was looking at a "pretty good size" weather cell, "at a heading of two five five . . . and I'd rather not go throughit, 'I'd rather go around it- one way or the other." Fort Worth ARTCCthen gave the flight another heading and stated "when I can I'll turn you into Blue Ridge, it'll be about thezero- - one zero radial." .At 1746:50, the center cleared flight 191 direct to Blue Ridge and to descend to 9,000 feet, and flight 191 acknowledged receipt of the clearance.

At 1748:22, the captain told the first officer, "You‘re in good shape. I'm glad we didn't have to go through that mess. I thought sure he was going to send us through it." At 1751:19, the flight engineer said, "Looks like it‘s raining over Fort Worth." At 1751:42, Forth Worth ARTCC instructed flight 191 to contact DFW Airport .Approach Control (Regional Approach Control), and at 1752:08, the flight contacted approach control ~stating that it was descending through 11,000 feet and had received ATIS Information Romeo. At 1756:28, Regional Approach Control‘s Feeder East controller transmitted an all aircraft message which was received by ﬂight 191. The message stated in part,

_ 2/ A level of constant atmospheric pressure related to a reference datum of 29.92 in Hg. Each flight level is stated in three digits that represent hundreds of feet. FL.450

n represents a barometric altimeter reading of 45,000 feet. I i I - -§/.VORTAC--A collocated very high frequency omni range station and ultra—high frequency tactical air navigational aid providing azimuth and distance information.to:the

user. - . v ' '.

«:1/ ATIS~—A continuous broadcast of recorded weather and noncontrol airport information. I '. ~,.

_§/ A published Standard Arrival Route (STAR). I. '

. §/ All altitudes herein are mean sea level unless otherwise specified. , _

2/ Identification of the crewmembers speaking was made by members of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) Group familiar with the flightcrew. . -