Word: runway
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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This is about the Italian airliner which undershot the runway and crashed* at [New York's] Idlewild [ Airport ] after failing three times to hold the instrument glide-path which would have brought it down to the runway. It is written on the idea that the instrument or instruments-altimeter-cum-drift-indicator-failed or had failed, was already out of order or incorrect. It is written in grief. Not just for the sorrow of the bereaved ones of those who died in the crash, and for the airline, but for the pilot himself, who, along with his unaware passengers...
...afternoon last week, an Italian airliner approached New York City's International (Idlewild) Airport through a low overcast from which heavy rain was falling. Guided by instruments and radar, Captain Guglielmo Algarotti brought the airplane out of ragged clouds at 300 ft. altitude and tried to land on Runway 22. He missed it and circled back into the clouds...
Captain Algarotti circled for three-quarters of an hour, then was given permission to land on Runway 4. His first try was unsuccessful; so were the second and third. On his fourth approach, the control tower warned him that he was flying too low while still out over Jamaica Bay. He tried to pull up, but the airliner faltered (probably stalled) and plunged into one of the 2,000-ft. piers that carry the "slopeline" approach lights of Runway 4. Sixteen of the 22 passengers and all ten crew members were killed.-Authorities are still investigating the cause...
Many of them blamed the slopeline approach lights. In the official instructions distributed to its pilots by American Airlines appears the following entry for Idlewild Airport: "Caution! Slopeline approach lights in operation on Runway 4 can be mistaken for runway." The same warning is given about the slopeline lights at Washington and Los Angeles. No matter what is decided about last week's crash, many pilots will believe that the Italian captain tried to land on the water between the piers...
When the buzzer sounded, two pilots, bulky in their flying gear (pressure suit, parachute, oxygen mask, survival kit, maps), dashed toward two long, lean F-86D fighters. In two minutes they were surging down the runway with a crashing roar, and two more jets rolled into position for takeoff. Before their wheels were fully up, the lead pair were getting radio orders and a fix on the suspect plane. Interceptor pilots can open fire at will against any aircraft they believe to be hostile. Identifications are quickly made in daylight; at nighttime, pilots buzzed by suspicious jets are quick...