Portal:Bureau of Air Commerce

“ By actual test, under the supervision of the Department of Commerce, this amount of fuel ran engines of the same type and service in an identical airplane for a period of 22 minutes with the carburetor set for maximum fuel consumption. These facts and computations indicate that the pilot was faced with the necessity of locating the Kirksville field and effecting a landing there within a matter of minutes. His realization of this emergency, as indicated by the precautions taken just before the accident, probably accounts for his dying declaration that he was "out of gas". ”

“ Error on the part of the pilot for proceeding in the flight after discovering that he was unable to effectively communicate with the ground.
e. Failure of the company's ground personnel at Kansas City to expeditiously redispatch the airplane to a field where better weather existed when it became apparent that the ceiling at Kansas City was dropping to and below the authorized minimum for landing and while the airplane still had sufficient fuel to meet the Department of Commerce requirement of 45-minute fuel reserve after effecting a landing. ”

“ Improper control by the company's ground personnel at Albuquerque for not calling the airplane back or ordering it to stop at an intermediate point when it was found that two-way radio communication could not be established. ”