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thereafter. After Captain Powers had left Ponca City and when he was nearing the Wichita Municipal Airport at 1:54 a.m., he talked by radio with the captain of Braniff Flight 1, who had taken off from Wichita after conferring with Captain Boqua. The captain of Flight 1 advised Captain Powers to cruise at "minimum altitude" north of Wichita. Because of severe static conditions, Captain Powers was unable tomake out this message, and the Braniff radio operator at Wichita, who had intercepted the message, relayed it to him. Captain Powers landed at Wichita at 2:03 a.m., taxied onto the loading ramp and at 2:05 a.m. parked the airplane close to NC 1941, TWA Flight 6.
Braniff Flight 2 was met at the Wichita loading ramp by the Braniff radio operator and the passenger agent. There was no one in the Braniff radio room at this time. Captain Powers testified that, within two or three minutes after he parked the airplane, he personally requested one of the Braniff ground personnel to obtain approval of a change in his flight plan to "minimum altitude"[1] for the flight to Kansas City. About the same time, when one of the ground personnel delivered the clearance for his approval, Captain Powers wrote on the form "Request minimum altitude". A copy of this form was then returned to the ground personnel. A light rain, began to fail about 2:10 and the radio operator left the ramp momentarily to obtain raincoats for the ground crew. Upon his return he entered the gasoline distribution on the clearance form which had been signed by Captain Powers. About 2:15 the passenger steps and nose ladder were removed.
As Captain Powers started to taxi away from the ramp, at approximately 2:16, the radio operator and passenger agent returned to their
