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A flight proceeding from Las Vegas to Daggett by direct air line, following a magnetic course of about 210 degrees, would remain on the right side of the airway. While flight on that course, at the altitude involved, would place the airplane closer to the higher terrain of Potosi Mountain than would be the case if the on-course signal were strictly adhered to, the flight path would avoid the 8,000-foot level of the higher terrain by a distance of about 3½ miles. Aside from the suggestion that flights remain within the confines of the on-course signal in the area, which obviously seems to have been ignored, there was no company regulation or instruction at the time of the accident which would prevent the use of such course. It may well be that the crew of the flight involved in the accident intended to fly that course, or a course between it and the on-course signal. If so, it is quite possible that the average course of 218 degrees, applicable to the Boulder City-Daggett route, was erroneously utilized, in assuming a heading out of Las Vegas, in the belief that it was the average or direct line course between Las Vegas and Daggett.
Except in those cases where one of TWA's flight superintendents is stationed at the point at which the flight plan is prepared, the flight plan is not checked by anyone other than the flight crew. Since there was no flight superintendent at Albuquerque, the flight plan in this case was not checked. The fact that the flight plan involved here contained such a substantial error and the fact that it was not signed by the captain indicate an urgent need for a closer watch over such irregularities.
Whatever may have been the fact with respect to the use of the flight plan course, it seems obvious that Captain Williams and First Officer Gillette were paying no more than slight attention to the position of the airplane by visual reference to objects on the ground.
