- 10 -
the message and repeated it as "Northeast 10. Thanks". Trip 21 next reported to the Atlanta control tower at 11:44 p.m., flying at 1800 feet above sea level over the Atlanta range station, which is located two miles southeast of the airport. The elevation of Candler Field is 985 feet above sea level. The Atlanta control tower acknowledged receipt of this message and again transmitted the surface wind as being northeast 10. The company radio operator at Atlanta then called Trip 21 and transmitted the following message: "Dispatcher suggests you land straight in."[1] Trip 21 acknowledged receipt of this message. No further radio contacts were made with Trip 21 and when it failed to land at the airport within a reasonable length of time the company's flight dispatcher became concerned and at 12:09 a.m. requested that emergency warnings be broadcast by the Airway Communication System over the Atlanta radio range. This request was complied with immediately and as the trip was still unreported the communications supervisor ordered that the Atlanta radio range station be monitored at once to determine if all courses were in proper alignment and if the signals were being transmitted properly. Believing that Trip 21 had been involved
- ↑ When making an instrument approach from the northeast at Atlanta, Georgia, the normal procedure is to pass over the radio range station at 1800 feet above sea level. A turn is then made and the pilot proceeds out the southeast leg of the radio range for about two minutes where a procedure turn is made and the ship is then headed back along the southeast log to the range station. During this time a gradual descent is effected and the airplane passes over the range station on the final approach at an altitude of 500 feet above the level of the airport. From this point a let-down is made to a minimum authorized ceiling of 300 feet and upon making visual contact with the ground the flight, with a northeast wind of ten miles per hour, can normally continue straight ahead and effect a landing on the southeast-northeast runway.
