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Upon sighting the Airliner he proceeded in a climb toward the San Gorgonio Pass. Upon reaching an altitude of about 9000 feet in the vicinity of March Field, he passed about one and one half to two miles on the left of the Airliner. As they passed Lieutenant Wilson rooked the wings of the Bomber to identify himself to First Officer Reppert in the Airliner. Both Pilot Wilson and copilot Leicht testified that they observed no maneuver of recognition from the Airliner. Lieutenant Wilson, then well ahead, crossed the line of flight of the Airliner and throttled back, waiting for it to overtake him on the left. The airliner was next observed overtaking the Bomber on a parallel course to the left. Pilot Wilson, feeling that he was still too far from the Airliner to recognize his friend, turned his plane to the left to approach closer. Following this change of course he realized he was coming closer to the Airliner than he had anticipated and he immediately made a right turn to avoid it. Wilson testified that "It was while in this right bank that the impact occurred after I had been in it for a long enough time that I felt perfectly clear and far away and on my way back to the airport. As a matter of fact, I had throttled my left engine up a couple of inches and was getting my nose down a little bit, and I was ready to trim it up and prepare for my letdown when the impact occurred."
The copilot of the Bomber stated that at the moment of impact he saw the Airliner, which was then immediately below and ahead of them. He said he observed that the rudder of the Airliner had been hit by the propeller of the Bomber and that about three-fourths of the rudder was gone. He stated further that the Airliner then appeared to rise about ten feet above them, hover momentarily, fall off to the left and disappear. He said he noticed no markings on the aircraft but knew it was an airliner because he "just saw the silver... shining in the sun."
Lieutenant Wilson testified that at no time during which he had observed
