Lost Over Fresno
In Manhattan last week Transcontinental & Western Air engineers were awarded National Air Board's annual safety prize bestowed on them for a directional radio device designed to keep planes from getting lost. Few smiles, however, creased the faces of the accepting T. W. A. group for at exactly that moment T. W. A. men in California were searching desperately for one of their own planes.
With six passengers and crew of three, T. W. A.'s 14-seat, twin-motor, Douglas DC2 took off at 6:30 one evening from San Francisco to Winslow, Ariz. It turned south to Los Angeles when it encountered the rains that later washed out over 5,500 homes, 200 lives (see p. 16). On course and on time the big 18,560-lb. ship droned over Fresno, rose to 10,000 ft. to top rugged Tehachapi Mts. Ice began forming on the plane's wings. So about 8:30 p. m. Pilot John Dunbar Graves, 35, a million-mile veteran, turned back, and apparently flew straight into the swirling heart of the storm. An hour later the plane was seen 500 ft. above raging San Joaquin River, surrounded by rocky mountain peaks. Thereafter, six days of search produced no trace of it.
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