The plane which rendered such effective assistance to Flight 6 in the emergency had refueled at Albuquerque and had departed some time previously. This plane experienced the same difficulty when changing from 87 to 80 octane fuel but the crew had been fortunate in getting the engines started again on 87 octane fuel. After satisfying themselves through experiment that something was definitely wrong with the 80 octane fuel and realizing that Flight 6 had or was about to take off with the same fuel, they radioed this flight of their experience and how they overcame it and turned at once toward Albuquerque to aid Flight 6 if necessary.
They sighted Flight 6 just after it had dropped its flares and was slightly above the tree tops in effecting the emergency landing. They immediately dropped one of their flares to keep the ground lighted until the plane came to rest and then flew overhead until signaled from the ground that everything was alright.
The failure of the engines was found to be due to the presence of a large amount of water in the 80 octane fucl wth which the plane had been serviced at Albuquerque. A check of the fuel storage system at Albuquerque disclosed that on 5000 gallon underground tank contained about 200 gallons of water. after extensive tests, it was found that with a certain amount of water in the fuel pit, pumping fuel (rom the underground storage tank would cause water to syphon from the fuel pit into the tank through an air vent running between the two. On the afternoon of the preceding day there had been an unusual amount of rainfall which had flooded the concrete apron and filled the fuel pit with water.
It is the opinion of the Accident Board that the probable cause of this accident was an abnormal amount of water in the left main fuel tank of the aircraft due to accidental entry of water into an underground fuel storage tank.
The manner in which water got into this underground tank was very unusual and immediate steps were taken on all air lines to prevent a recurrence,
ACCIDENT BOARD
Jesse W. Lankford,
Secretary.
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