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Captain Boqua, believing that Braniff Flight 2 had taken off before he came out of the airport administration building, taxied away from the loading gate at approximately 2:21. He decided to start his take-off from the west end of the loading ramp so as to have all of the available area for his take-off, and therefore taxied the airplane to a point on this end of the ramp approximately 750 feet behind the Braniff airplane. He switched the landing lights on and warmed up the engines. About 2:23 the rain increased in intensity from light to moderate but the visibility remained good. Witnesses stated that they could still see the airport boundary lights on the south side of the airport.
Thus, to summarize the movements of the two aircraft involved, it appears that Braniff Flight 2 had arrived at Wichita at 2:03 a.m.; had taxied away from the ramp at 2:16 a.m.; had parked in the take-off area about 2:17 a.m. TWA Flight 6 arrived at Wichita from Albuquerque at 10:45 p.m.; departed for Kansas City at 11:06 p.m. but returned to Wichita due to adverse weather conditions and landed at 11:35 p.m. Flight 6 was redispatched and departed from the loading gate at 2:21 a.m. The accident occurred at 2:25 a.m.
After warning up the engines Captain Boqua started the take-off toward the southeast, into the wind and parallel to the line of temporary boundary lights on the west side of the airport.[1] After the airplane had accelerated to a speed sufficient for Captain Boqua to raise the tail, both he and First Officer Richwine made out the shape of the Braniff airplane a short distance ahead and almost directly in their path. Captain Boqua immediately closed the throttles, applied full left brake and rudder, and rolled the control wheel fully to
- ↑ See map facing page 11.
