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great degree of refinement, but at least they appear to exclude the possibility that the aircraft had wandered very far from its course, or that it had proceeded to the far side of Short Hill and then turned back, as one witness believed.
As there has been absolutely nothing, aside from the altitude estimates given by some lay witnesses who in turn were contradicted by others presumed to have viewed the same airplane at approximately the same time, to suggest that the pilot was not proceeding in accordance with his flight plan, and as any change of plan is approaching a region where instrument operation was anticipated would normally be the subject of immediate report by radio, we conclude that the flight was proceeding normally, that an altitude of 6,000 feet had been reached, and that no trouble had been experienced up to the time of reaching the Lovettsville area.
Seemingly the pilot elected to fly through the storm area rather than to make any attempt to circle it. The storm extended for a very considerable distance north of the airplane's path and for several miles to the south, and presumably it appeared to the pilot as he examined the horizon that there would be no gain in passenger comfort or otherwise by any detour of practicable extent, and no hazard in flying straight through.
With the airplane presumed to be on course, at on altitude of 6,000 feet, approximately two miles southeast of the scene of the accident at approximately 2:40 P.M., the analysis of the flight path concerns the course that the airplane may have taken from that point to the final contact with the ground less than one minute thereafter. The most direct evidence on that matter is that of Mr. McGaha and his son, who reported having seen the airplane go into a dive immediately after the lightning
