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of Cassoday, Kansas, approximately 44 miles northeast of Wichita, thunderstorms and turbulent air were encountered. Captain Boqua deemed it advisable to return to Wichita and await an improvement in the weather. The flight landed at Wichita at approximately 11:35 p.m. About 1:45 a.m. Captain Boqua conferred with the captain of Braniff Flight 1, which had just flown from Kansas City to Wichita. He then telephoned the TWA flight superintendent at Kansas City, who at 2:03 a.m. released Flight 6 for flight to Kansas City on instruments.
Meanwhile, Braniff Flight 2 had proceeded from Brownsville, Texas, to Dallas, Texas. Captain Powers and First Officer Huff had been assigned to pilot the flight from Dallas to Chicago. Prior to departure from Dallas, Captain Powers had prepared a flight plan, the Wichita-Kansas City portion of which indicated that Captain Powers intended to cruise, after leaving Wichita, at 5,000 feet above sea level, and to descend to 3,000 feet above sea level at DeSoto, Missouri. DeSota is a radio fix for flights operating under instrument conditions between Wichita and Kansas City, and is approximately 23 miles southwest of Kansas City.
Braniff Flight 2 took off from Dallas on schedule at approximately 11:30 p.m. and proceeded to Ponca City, Oklahoma. The Wichita-Kansas City part of the flight plan was filed by Braniff with the Airway Traffic Control Center at St. Louis[1] at 1:53 a.m. and was approved by it shortly
- ↑ The St. Louis Airway Traffic Control Center supervised instrument flights on the civil airways within certain designated airway traffic control areas. Wichita was not within any airway traffic control area. Flights from Wichita to Kansas City entered such an area, however, at a point 25 miles northeast of the Wichita radio range station.
