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Captain Powers' request for a change in flight plan on this form when it was returned to him about 2:10, he could have eliminated much of the subsequent delay of Flight 2.
Captain Powers, when he requested a change in his flight plan, requested that he be allowed to fly at "minimum altitude". An Airway Traffic Control Center when approving flight plans must have information indicating whether a flight is intended to be in accordance with contact flight rules or in accordance with instrument flight rules. A request for "minimum altitude" is confusing in that it does not indicate which of these alternatives is desired. It appears, therefore, that Captain Powers should have specified in his request whether he intended to fly contact or on instruments. If he had done so, some of the delay in obtaining the clearance from the Airway Traffic Control Center would have been eliminated.
The control tower at the Wichita Municipal Airport was not operating at the time of the accident. There was normally no control tower operator on duty between 8:00 p.m. and 6:15 a.m. There were on occasions, sightseeing trips from the airport between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. TWA Flight 6 was scheduled to arrive at Wichita at 10:57 and depart at 11:07 p.m. every evening. Another TWA flight, this one west-bound, was scheduled to arrive at Wichita at 1:07 a.m. and depart at 1:17. A south-bound Braniff flight was scheduled to arrive at 1:10 a.m. and depart at 1:17. Braniff Flight 2 was regularly scheduled to arrive at 2:08 a.m. and depart at 2:16 a.m. Occasional use was also made of
