Perch

In Mint Canyon, Calif, one day last week, Mrs. Clara Weiss's chickens and turkeys were thrown into panic by a huge bird which roared across the henyard only a few feet above the ground. Few minutes later, Mrs. Weiss heard a "terrible clattering sound." The bird, an $80,000 Lockheed 14, had perched violently on the crest of 3,000-ft. Mount Stroh, had carried nine to their deaths.

Just 27 minutes earlier, Lockheed Aircraft Corp.'s Pilot Sidney Willey took off from Burbank in foggy weather, with instructions to deliver the brand-new 14 to Northwest Airlines at Las Vegas, Nev.-- that Northwest might avoid paying California's 3% sales tax. The nine who died were not paying passengers but two Lockheed employes, two Northwest officials and one employe, two wives, two children. Principal post-mortem question mark was why Pilot Willey flew so low. Best guess: For some reason he decided to short-cut straight across the mountains and "fly contact''--in sight of ground--from Burbank to Daggett (in the Mojave Desert), instead of skirting the hills and staying on the airlines' beam. One bit of ground Pilot Willey did not see in time was Mount Stroh, in the Saugus Hills.

The original Lockheed Aircraft Co. was started by Allan and Malcolm Loughead, who changed their name because so many people pronounced it "loghead." The company has produced many first-class planes, has had its share of first-class bad luck. After the Northwest Airlines crash in January--when part of the H-shaped tail "fluttered" off a 14--it grounded the model. The fault was corrected by static balances within ten days. About 27 Lockheed 145 have been operating safely ever since.

As usual, the Department of Commerce last week began an investigation of the crash, but its findings could not be made known for weeks. Less stately was the pace of the coroner of Los Angeles County--where two other major plane crashes have occurred in the Saugus-New-hall Hill area. Said he: "The crash was accidental and due to faulty judgment on the part of both pilot and co-pilot."

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