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and a minimum visibility of one mils. 4/
The United States Weather *** report issued for Morgantown at 8:30 a.m. indicated that there existed a ceiling at an estimated height of 2000 feet, three miles visibility, dark broken clouds, a light ground fog which was dissipating rapidly, a temperature of 64 degrees and a dew point of 63 degrees.
The flight took off from Pittsburgh at 8:50 a.m., having been cleared as far as Knoxville, Tennessee. According to the testimony of Captain Wright and First Officer Bininger the flight proceeded normally toward Morgantown, making a radio position report at 9:00 a.m. over South Brownsville, Pennsylvania, flying contact at 2000 feet above sea level. About 9:10 a.m. PUA's radio operator at Pittsburgh advised the flight that PCA's Morgantown station reported light rain, visibility down to about one mile and wind from the west about 6 m.p.h. 5/ The flight acknowledged receipt of this massage at 9:11 a.m. and reported that the airplane was over the Morgantown airport.
In accordance with the usual PCA landing procedure at Morgantown, Captain Wright circled the airport to the left to check the field for other traffic and the wind direction. The captain stated that, while circling the field, the flight encountered a moderate rain squall west of the airport. Captain Wrigth opened the side window and sliding windshield so that he might have the benefit of the resulting increased visibility. As they circled the field and upon reaching a point approximately south of the airport the captain stated that they ran cut of the
4/ See Appendix A for United States Weather Bureau reports issued at Morgantown on the morning of the accident.
5/ At the time of the accident there was no control tower at the Morgantown airport, nor did PCA have a radio transmitter there. Weather and traffic information from Morgantown was communicated by teletype to PCA's Pittsburgh radio station, which relayed the information to the flight for which it was intended.
