Originally Posted by
booke23
I have no insight into air accident investigation in the early 1960's, would they really have just plucked the 70 degree figure out of thin air? (based on what they think happened). Surely they must have some factual basis for that (cut power lines).
Otherwise it shows extreme sloppy practice that has no place in accident investigation.
I've said that it felt like the Lockheed engineers thought the CAB investigators were a bunch of fools. One basis for that is that Lockheed drew a line on the map showing what they considered the only possible flight path, and the CAB guys added a huge sweeping possibility space to that. The CAB space includes an area where the plane would have to get into a LEFT bank to get to the impact site.
Discovering a letter from Don Nyrop (NWA pres) saying they were highly skeptical of the CAB report and pointed out 22 errors is another and unexpected piece of evidence.
Going public on the day of the crash with the scenario, which then was not revised for the remainder of the investigation, is another.
I have little trouble imagining they thought up the crash scenario and just interpolated the power line angle. Maybe they did more than that and we don't have the data. But pulling the number out of the air would match other clues.