These 3 files together
may clarify the early right turn and the meaning of "toll road departure":
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gkc2m29h0k...ption.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/724jm9z8mg...chart.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uurh7m9oat...OHare.jpg?dl=0
The "departure routing description" is from an April 1962 O'Hare master plan analysis, based on operations information from "...late Fall or early Winter of 1961."
Note the paragraph beginning, "Departures to the south...", particularly the last sentence: "Formerly, this routing was circuitous--aircraft proceeded via Victor 172, Victor 429, and Victor 38 to Peotone."
If I'm reading the chart correctly, in September 1961 the "circuitous" routing might have been the reason for initiating the right hand turn - toward V172 in the direction of V429, and thus toward the Northwest Tollway which V172 roughly parallels.
Irving Park Rd/Route 19 is not a toll road, the Tri-State Tollway is in the other direction, and the newer "direct southerly routing through the Midway vector area..." surely wouldn't require first turning that much to the right?
Could the circuitous routing have been changed partly as a result of the accident, considering the investigation would still have been in its early stages? I.e., was the early turn itself, at some point, implicated as a causal factor?
As always, hesitant to interpret or make suppositions, as a non-pilot, so please feel free to swat me if all this is irrelevant.
c