REPORT OF THE ACCIDENT BOARD OF THE
BUREAU OF AIR COMMERCE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Statement of probable cause concerning an Aircraft Accident
which occurred to plane of Transcontinental and Western Air,
Incorporated, on May 6, 1935, near Atlanta, Macon County, Mo.
To the Director of Air Commerce:
A fatal aircraft accident having occurred in civil air navigation in the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, pursuant to Sec. 2 (e) of the Air Commerce Act of 1926, as amended, designated two officials of the Department of Commerce to investigate said accident. They proceeded to the scene; inspected the site; and during the six days thereafter held public hearings at Macon, Mo. and Kansas City, Mo. At Macon 25 witnesses were examined; at Kansas City 34 witnesses were examined.
In the course of the proceedings in addition to numerous exhibits, hereto attached, nine hundred and seven pages of testimony were obtained and are herewith submitted.
The following is a summary of the facts, conditions and circumstances relating to the accident, at the end of which appears a statement of the probable causes found by the board which analyzed said accident.
On May 6, 1935, at about 3:30 a.m. at a point six miles west and two miles north of the town of Atlanta, Macon County, Mo., an airplane of United States registry, a Douglas Model DC-3, owned and operated by Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., while being flown in scheduled interstate operation carrying passengers and mail, met with an accident resulting in serious and fatal injuries to persons on board and the complete destruction