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WAS JOE BIDEN THE TARGET OF A BOTCHED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT BY CIA’S DOMESTIC OPERATION PHOENIX COMPONENT?


A.J. Weberman

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WAS JOE BIDEN THE TARGET OF A BOTCHED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT BY CIA’S DOMESTIC OPERATION PHOENIX COMPONENT?

What do Neilia Biden, Walter Reuther, J. Edgar Hoover, Murray Chotiner, Dorothy Hunt and Senator Hale Boggs have in common?

Between 1968 and 1972 Operation Phoenix neutralized 81,740 National Liberation Front members, of whom 26,369 were killed. This was a large section taken out of the Viet Cong Infrastructure. The program was headed by William Colby, who would later become DCIA under Nixon. Colby headed the Domestic Operation Phoenix Program during which key opponents of the Vietnam War were taken out.

On May 6 1996, William Colby's body was pulled from the muddy waters of the Wicomico River. 8 days earlier, investigators had found his capsized, half-submerged canoe 20 yards from where his body was found. On April 27, his wife, reported him missing. It is alleged that earlier in the day he had phoned her, letting her know that he was going to go home, eat dinner, shower then head to bed. She said he never mentioned anything about going canoeing. The official explanation: He went out in his canoe, on a stormy night, on a rough river and without a lifejacket. There he had either a heart attack or stroke. His canoe tipped over, pushing him underwater where he then drowned. Colby was killed by the US government to prevent him from revealing the Operation Phoenix spilled over to the United States and a Domestic Operation Phoenix existed during the Nixon presidency, from January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974, the day Nixon resigned. This program was a result of anticommunist elements with the intelligence community such as Colby who joined with Nixon in his determination to win the Vietnam War at any cost. When so many brave Americans are dying overseas what’s a few civilian casualties at home, especially if these liberal comsymps were aiding and abetting America’s enemy? Let us examine some of the fates that opponents of Nixon and the war met with during this period beginning with the incident that renewed my interest in this period in American history, the deaths of Senator Joe Biden’s family.

BIDEN HIS TIME

The crash involving the Biden family station wagon and a tractor-trailer driven by Curtis C. Dunn, 43, of Kaolin, Pa., occurred on Monday afternoon, Dec. 18, 1972. The tractor-trailer was heading toward Pennsylvania on Limestone Road when it broadsided the station wagon, sending it spinning for 150 feet, breaking the windshield and crushing in a rear door, while the truck itself skidded for 20 feet and landed on its side. Neilia Biden, 30, was at the wheel with their three young children – three-year-old Beau Biden, now the state’s Democratic attorney general, two-year-old Hunter Biden, now a lawyer in Washington, and 13-month-old Amy Biden. Neilia and Amy Biden died from the crash. Hunter Biden sustained head injuries. Beau Biden had a broken leg that kept him in the hospital beyond the start of the Senate’s new term, leading their broken-hearted father to decide to take his oath of office in the hospital chapel and to vacillate about whether he should be sworn in at all. A story headlined, “No Charges Due for Trucker in Biden Deaths,” in the Evening Journal read: “Chief deputy attorney general, Jerome Herlihy said there was no evidence that [Dunn] was speeding, drinking or driving a truck with faulty brakes. In addition, witnesses to the crash near Hockessin provided no basis for a prosecution.” Herlihy said Neilia Biden either accelerated or drifted through the intersection, and Dunn could not stop. The truck driver said she was not looking at him, her face turned away, and the state police thought she was distracted by one of the children in the back seat. Dunn died in 1999, but Philip A. Lafferty, the truck owner he drove for, still lives in Avondale, Pa. In a telephone interview, Lafferty recalled the state police impounding the tractor-trailer and the station wagon for the investigation for a couple of days and concluding that Dunn was not at fault.

The target was not Biden’s family but was Joe Biden who was about to enter the Senate as an anti-Vietnam war candidate. The rogue agents responsible for this may have mixed a hallucinogen or poison with a permeability agent and placed it on the steering wheel of Biden’s vehicle. The Washington Post's Bob Woodward wrote that Watergate Burglar E. Howard Hunt told some of his former CIA associates "that he was ordered in December 1971, or January 1972, to assassinate journalist Jack Anderson." Citing "reliable sources," Woodward said the order came from "a senior official in the Nixon White House." Hunt explored placing on the steering wheel of the victim's car a drug that enters the body directly through the skin. Biden was in denial and stated, “I got elected when I was 29, and I got elected November the 7th. And on December 18 of that year, my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly – and I never pursued it – drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries.” This could very well have been an accident but there were a series of events during Nixon’s reign that indicated it was not.

http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/12-07bidencrash.asp

BOGGED DOWN

Congressman Hale Boggs (born February 15, 1914) grew up in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. He was an attorney in New Orleans who was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946. Congressman Hale Boggs had questioned James Forrestal about the need to create the CIA. On April 5, 1971, he made an impassioned speech to his fellow Representatives on the tyranny of intelligence agencies turning America into a police state: "The story began on April 5, 1971, when Boggs unexpectedly took the House floor during one-minutes to declare that 'when the FBI taps telephones of the members of this body and the members of the Senate, when the FBI stations agents on college campuses to infiltrate college organizations, when the FBI adopts the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo, then it is time - it is way past time, Mr. Speaker - that the present director no longer be the director.' Numerous prominent Members began volunteering suspicions they too had been spied on by the FBI, when in reality they were victims of Nixon’s squad of Cuban exiles and rogue CIA Agents. According to an April 7, 1971, article in Roll Call, Senators George McGovern (SD), Harold Hughes, (Iowa), and Birch Bayh (Ind) - all liberal anti-war Democrats - all suspected they were being bugged by the FBI. Bayh actually found a device. Boggs did not produce irrefutable evidence that the FBI had been spying on Members, but he did build a persuasive case, citing among other things the Bayh incident and a claim that Senator Ralph Yarborough (Dem. -TX) and FBI critic, “found an electronic surveillance device in the intercom system in his desk.” He also cited a case in which the neighbor of liberal Senator Charles Percy (R-Ill.) discovered a broadcasting device underneath his car, which was always parked in front of Percy's house. Shortly thereafter, Percy's wife found two men working on the phone line outside Percy's house for what they said were 'safety purposes.' And Senator Wayne Morse (D-Ohio) another liberal, was informed of a bug in his office by a reporter." [Roll Call 8.10.92] Nixon’s squad was at work.

Congressman Hale Boggs advised his colleagues that he had evidence that the FBI was tapped his telephones. The FBI may well have tapped his phone looking for his connections to organized crime. FBI document WFO-113 contained only one undeleted line: "Also on this date, Subject [CARLOS MARCELLO] placed a call to Congressman Hale Boggs, Democrat from Louisiana. (Deleted.) It is not known whether Subject actually talked to Boggs or not."

On October 16, 1972, Congressman Hale Boggs, Congressman Nick Begich, and an aide to Nick Begich, left Anchorage, Alaska, at 9:00 a.m. en route to Juneau, Alaska, (575 miles) in a twin-engine Cessna 310. They were last heard from at 9:09 a.m. when Federal Aeronautics Administration officials received a visual flight plan, just as the plane was approaching the Chugach Mountain Range. The pilot gave the route as:

(1) Over the Chugach Mountain Range to Prince William Sound.

(2) Along the coast to Glacier National Monument.

(3) To Juneau, skirting the edge of the St. Elias Mountain Range. This route would have taken them over water for a very brief period. No one on the plane was heard from again. The pilot, Don E. Jonz, had 15,000 flying hours and a good reputation. He owned Pan Alaska Airways, from which the plane was chartered. The aircraft of Don E. Johnz was not equipped with a built-in emergency radio beacon; when asked by the Federal Aeronautics Administration whether he had "emergency gear and a locator beacon aboard," the pilot replied, "Affirmative." Don E. Jonz was required by Alaska State law to carry a hand-held locator beacon. The weather forecast that day predicted no significant changes from earlier forecasts.

More than 100 private and 40 military aircraft flew up and down the southern Alaska coast in search of the missing plane. Later, two jet reconnaissance planes, each equipped with cloud-piercing electronic equipment, intensified the emergency mission, accompanied by a total of 52 other aircraft. Air Force C130s stayed aloft throughout the search, electronically equipped to locate the emergency beacon of the Cessna aircraft. The Air Force brought out the SR-71, the successor to the U-2, to aerially photograph the landscape. There were 55 sightings of material thought to be wreckage, but none of it came from the plane. The NTSB called the mission "one of the most extensive searches in recent aviation history." After 3,600 hours of serial hunting, not a trace of the wreckage was ever found.

Even more mysterious was the fact that the C130s were unable to pick up any radio signals from the emergency equipment aboard the Cessna. Had the transmitter been destroyed even though it was specifically designed to survive a plane crash? After the crash, a hand-held emergency beacon was found in the cabin of another Pan Alaska aircraft; it was said to belong to Don E. Jonz. This seemed to explain the missing emergency radio signal. However, a witness who had seen the pilot, recalled that Don E. Jonz had an unidentified object in his briefcase the size and shape of an emergency locator. This locator was a different color than those sold at Anchorage Airport. Was it a bomb? The NTSB concluded it was "unable to determine the probable cause of the accident." [NTSB Report AAR-72-28]

The wife of Nick Begich stated: "It's a mystery. What did happen? How did it happen? My children wish there were answers." Jerry Patrick Hemming told this researcher: "The people who do this xxxx are independent contractors. They have nothing to do with the politics of anybody. If the plane got blown to xxxx over the water, they ain't gonna recover nothing."

Robert Olsen of the Rockefeller Commission reported that "HUNT categorically denied...any participation or involvement whatever in the attempted assassination of Governor Wallace, the disappearance of Congressman Hale Boggs or the shooting of Senator Stennis." [NARA SSCIA 157-10011-10090]

Bogg’s involvement with the Mafia could have played a role in his death but a bomb aboard an aircraft doesn’t sound like the criminal geniuses of organized crime, this sounds more like the Agency.

After Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs' plane disappeared in Alaska a quiet but intense battle began that could shake the entire Democratic leadership in the House. Boggs was about to replace CARL Albert as House Whip. Albert's first two years as Speaker were distressing for many of his Democratic colleagues, who found his leadership weak and entirely too accommodating to the Administration's Viet Nam policies. A few liberal Congressmen wanted Boggs for the job. "I have been very keen for a contest over the speakership," said one Midwestern Democrat. "And I have been in favor of having Hale move up. This thing [boggs' disappearance] has been a catastrophic blow. What it means is that we are apparently left without an alternative." A sampling taken since Boggs was declared missing indicated that Albert is now safe, and will win reelection.

THE DEATH OF WALTER REUTHER

The fatal plane crash of Walter Reuther, a liberal who was head of the United Automobile Workers union on May 9, 1970, also raised questions.

In 1933 Victor and Walter Reuther had lived and worked in the Soviet Union. They were favorably impressed with pre-Stalinist Marxist-Leninism. In 1937 Walter Reuther became the leader of a United Automobile Workers insurgent faction that included Communists. The FBI reported: "He ran for the Common Council in Detroit in the 1937 election on a Communist Party of the United States of America ticket." [FBI 61-9556-283, p8] In 1940 J. Edgar Hoover stated: "Walter Reuther was one of the Reuther brothers of the CIO, an avowed Communist, who was educated at the propaganda college in Moscow; was sent to this country eight or nine years ago, and was active in the Detroit area." It was suggested to the FBI by one of its informants that Walter Reuther's anti-communism was insincere, and merely a self-serving ruse in his quest for power. Walter Reuther was characterized as a Communist mole within the labor movement. The Communist Party of the United States of America had tried to recruit Walter Reuther, but was unsuccessful. In June 1963, Victor Lasky reported that Walter Reuther had urged United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy to curb the FBI's war on Communism. [NY Journal American 6.5.63]

David Halberstam related the President Kennedy planned to replace John McCone as CIA Director with Jack Conway, Walter Reuther's chief political lobbyist. In 1966 Victor Reuther told Drew Pearson and The Los Angeles Times that many of the AFL/CIO's overseas operations were conduits for the CIA. Victor Reuther named CIA labor operatives and CIA-founded unions. He described AID and AIFLD as CIA conduits. This allegation angered former CIA Staffer Thomas Braden and he revealed that in 1967, that some time between 1950, and 1954, he gave the Reuther brothers $50,000 of CIA funds. Braden was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on February 22, 1918. As World War II approached, he enlisted in the British Army. When the United States entered the war, he served in the OSS. He joined the CIA in 1950 as Special Assistant to Allen Dulles. In 1948 Braden married the former Joan Ridley, whom he met when she was on Nelson Rockefeller's staff.

Walter Reuther admitted having taken the money, and said that Braden had tried to recruit his brother Victor as a CIA agent: "Victor was contacted by Tom Braden at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and asked to become a CIA agent, using as a 'front' his position [with the CIO]." Braden stated: "Victor spent the money, mostly in West Germany, to bolster labor unions there. He tried undercover techniques to keep me from finding out how he spent it. But I had my own undercover techniques." Braden gave Walter Reuther the money in $50 bills.

Although funding non-communist labor unions was a common practice, had Walter Reuther misappropriated any of these funds, the CIA would have been able to get a handle on him. Victor Reuther wrote: "I was still in Paris when the transfer of the $50 bills took place. The $50,000 was obviously an attempt to silence us..."

In 1960 NIXON called Walter Reuther "a labor leader-turned- radical politician." In 1962, Walter Reuther, a member of the Tractors for Freedom Committee, helped conduct negotiations to release the Bay of Pigs Brigade prisoners from Cuba. NIXON called this "submission to blackmail."

On May 9, 1970, Walter and May Reuther, Oskar Stronorov, William Wolfman, George Evans and Joseph Karrafa were killed when their Executive Jet Aviation M43EJ Lear Jet crashed at Emmet County Airport in Pellston, Michigan. Victor Reuther wrote: "Like others, I have been haunted continually by the question, 'Was the crash accidental?' There had been so many attempts on Walter's life. But from the intensive FAA investigation, the facts seem to say clearly that it was caused by human error, not neglect..." The FAA/NTSB found "no indication of sabotage." An examination of the reports by Barfield and Kollsman Instruments, on which the National Transportation Safety Board based their findings, told a different story.

THE CAPTAIN'S ALTIMETER

The National Transportation Safety Board report stated that "while all systems were irreparably damaged [including the co-pilot's altimeter], information was nevertheless obtained from a few units. The captain's altimeter showed a reading of 1400 feet M.S.L. with an altimeter setting 29.75 inches..." This was similar to the altimeter reading uncovered after the crash of October 1964. The altimeter was sent to Barfield Instruments, and then to James W. Angus at Kollsman Instruments for examination. The Kollsman Instrument's report stated: "No identification was present to trace the specific instrument type and date of manufacture. The mechanism construction isolated the unit to one of three major types, each of which had numerous variations, none of which were TSO certified. All of these types were essentially military." Had an untraceable altimeter been substituted for the original? Had this altimeter been constructed and tested so that it would fail at a specific, critical time during the flight?

The jet Walter Reuther was on had been initially assigned a ferry job from Columbus to Akron, Ohio. The plane refueled at Akron and went on to Detroit's City Airport, then on to Detroit's Metro Airport. According to Victor Reuther: "It was on the ground only 20 minutes, taxiing in and out before it loaded Walter and his party at 8:44 p.m. The Lear Company maintained that it was impossible for anyone but trusted officials of their firm to have known who was to use the plane..." Steven I. Schlossberg, who conducted the investigation of the crash for the United Automobile Workers, reported: "In view of the fact that almost no one outside of top officials of Executive Jet could have known the identity of the passengers and there was little, if any, chance for ground tampering of this airplane, it appears to me that further investigation on a private basis is unwarranted." David O. Norris, a private detective hired by Elizabeth Reuther Dickmeyer, youngest daughter of Walter Reuther, discovered evidence to the contrary: "Just hours after the crash a reporter from the Detroit News talked to the night dispatcher at Butler Aviation who said he knew that Walter Reuther was on the plane." Mrs. Dickmeyer stated that her father was going up to Black Lake almost every weekend, and that information would not have been hard to discern. Twenty minutes on the ground gave the saboteur enough time to change an altimeter. Aside from the fact it had no past, there were many other strange things about the captain's altimeter:

THE TORN OUT THREADS

A report from the Barfield Instrument Corporation dated May 19, 1970, stated: "One of the set screws was out of the rocking shaft, allowing the calibration arm assembly to be loose in the shaft. There was an indentation adjacent to the missing set screw hole. The set screw, which was missing from the rocking shaft, was recovered from within the case. Inspection revealed charred aluminum in the brass screw threads. The rocking shaft screw hole was inspected and found to have the threads torn out."

A report from the Kollsman Instrument Company stated: "If the questionable calibration arm set screws were loose..."

Click HERE and HERE and HERE to see this.

ANALYSIS

The screw had not fallen out due to worn out or damaged threads. Photographs of the set screw revealed normal threading. The screw hole shaft had its threads "torn," or drilled out. This was why it popped out. This was consistent with the indentation mark near the screw hole, that looked like a mark a left by a high speed drill bit that had drilled in the wrong area, then quickly withdrawn. The proper hole was located, and the threads were drilled out. The set screw was put back in place. The altimeter looked intact, even though it had been tampered with. As the rocking arm rotated, erroneous information would be transmitted to the dials from the altimeter's pressure capsule.

The Kollsman Instrument Report: "If the questionable calibration arm set screws were loose at the time of the approach under concern, the instrument would probably have indicated high by roughly 225 to 250 feet." This finding was based on a test during which the rocking shaft "calibration arm set screw was loosened. The unit was exposed to 10,000 ft. pressure altitude, then the return scale error readings were recorded."

This error was significant. Walter Reuther's jet had been cleared for an instrument landing and broke through scattered clouds at 400 feet. But it landed short of the airport, and crashed into 50-foot elm trees. The jet engines were immediately stopped by the branches. The momentum of the plane took it 269 feet farther, cutting through the trees; then it exploded into a ball of fire. The bodies were burned beyond recognition except for dental records. The crash occurred because the pilot thought he was flying higher than was indicated by the altimeter readings. Weather conditions that day were reported as "scattered clouds at 400 feet, measured ceiling 800 feet overcast, visibility seven miles, thunderstorms and light rain showers, wind at ten knots." The crew was experienced: Captain Evans with 7760 flight hours and his copilot, Karaffa, with 6533.

The loose set screw could not be explained. A Kollsman Instrument Report attempted to explain the indentation: "Examination of the shaft indicated physical damage adjacent to the questionable screw hole in the shaft. Further microscopic examination leads to the belief that this was due to causes other than upset by staking, due to the lack of upset material adjacent to the depression, and hole shape. It was more likely caused by high heat and pressure of a part laying in contact. A staked depression would deform the adjacent holes and shaft as noted in Photo 45 which was purposely done on an equivalent shaft at room temperature." The altimeter, however, had only been partially opened by crash events and the rocking shaft in question was still shielded by the altimeter's case. It could not have been caused by "a part laying in contact." Click HERE to see this. The Barfield Report never addressed itself to where the drill mark came from, or how the threads had been torn out. The Kollsman Report speculated that the damaged threads, and loose screw, might have been caused by heat damage: "Examination of a similar rocking shaft exposed to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, believed to be higher than that which the subject instrument was exposed to, showed that with a thread which is unabused, and with a properly tightened screw:

a) the screw did not come out due to high temperature exposure:

B) there is an aluminum deposit on the brass screw threads under load:

c) the thread in the shaft tapped hole, Photo 39, is not damaged to the extent shown on Photos 24, 25, 26 and 27."

This ruled out heat damage as being responsible for the threads being torn out.

THE BRIGHT SPOT

The investigators at Kollsman agreed with those at Barfield that the set screw was in place during the crash. The Kollsman Report stated: "Examination of the calibration arm, Photo 31, and 32, and the end of the questionable screw show discolorations whose shapes tend to confirm that this screw was in position at the time of exposure to high temperature. The questionable calibration arm set screw is reasoned to have been in position at the time the X-ray pictures were taken (analysis of the X-ray, Photo 10, and Photo 5 NTSB picture) and Photos 11 - 14 allow the conclusion that the questionable calibration arm set screw was in the shaft at the time the X-ray was taken and the stains on the calibration arm indicate that the arm position was reasonably correct." The Barfield Report, which was based on the primary examination of the unit, agreed: "One of the set screws was out of the rocking shaft, allowing the calibration arm assembly to be loose in the shaft. However, a bright spot on the arm in the area indicated (ref D) was in position in line with the set screw hole at the time the mechanism was removed from the case."

ANALYSIS

No test was conducted to determine if the set screw, sitting in a drilled-out thread, would leave a similar mark; with the threads torn, it could not have left a bright spot or stain on the shaft, since there would have been a total absence of tension. Even if there were tension, the screw would have left traces of movement on the shaft. When recovered, the rocking shaft was bent, so the screw must have changed position. The screw was tightened prior to the drilling-out of its base threads, so that the screw left the proper mark on the shaft. The fact that the screw was still in place after the crash, and was in a virtually pristine condition, while the threads that surrounded it had been obliterated was, furthermore, never addressed. There were several other problems with the construction of this altimeter:

THE INCORRECT PIVOTS AND MISSING JEWELS

According to a Kollsman Instrument report, the same rocking shaft that contained the missing set screw "has the improper pivot on the forward end." The Kollsman report stated: "One of the pivots which supports the rear of the rocking shaft was incorrect in that it is intended for a ring stone application only. If it was placed in the end of the shaft that did not have an end stone, it means that the improper jewel installation in the rocking shaft A was noted." Click HERE to see this.

ANALYSIS

The correct pivot was conical, the incorrect pivot was flat. The technician that placed the wrong pivot should have realized that the end stone had been "installed in an inverted position." On the opposite end of the same rocking shaft the end stone was missing and the ring jewel was pushed off center. The forward jewel for this shaft was damaged (oval recess) but not cracked. A drawing of this shaft and its jeweled bearings pointed out several areas of "possible interference" with the altimeter's accuracy as a result of these mismatches. Click HERE to see this.

THE LINK PIN

The link pin of the same rocking shaft was incorrect. "Pin installed was a P/N 371-80 (should be 1357-37)." The correct link pin ends were flat, while the incorrect one was tapered on one end. The Kollsman Report stated: "The link from shaft A to the capsule is the unit which had the improper link pin in the spring clip on the capsule."

ANALYSIS

Any part that comes into contact with the altitude capsule itself is critical. The technician who assembled the altimeter had made too many mistakes in the same area, to have done so innocently.

The Kollsman report concluded: "Considerable reinspection of altimeters of same repair history is recommended to ensure that the altimeters in service are in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended standards regarding parts used, assembly techniques, and calibration/compensation." [Reuther, Victor The Brothers Reuther Houghton-Mifflin 1976; NYT 5.8.67, 5.11.1970; Kollsman and Barfield reports; NTSB records]

VICTOR REUTHER

In April 1993, Victor Reuther received documentation of the preceding information. He stated: "I've had very strong suspicions from the day the accident occurred. I'm convinced there was tampering with the altimeter and, although the plane was on the ground for only a short time, it was time enough. The full story was not told. When I wrote my book I had not seen these files. I relied on the then-General Counsel of the United Automobile Workers, Steve Schlossberg, who I know from later experience was not too eager to make the investigation terribly thorough...He was more interested in passing the reigns of power to the new president, Leonard Woodcock, and getting the Reuther years behind him, so I felt he was too quick to accept the findings...he is now in Washington as the official representative of the ILO [international Labor Organization]..."

STEVEN SCHLOSSBERG

Schlossberg had made reference to a faulty altimeter in his report: "This possibility is discounted because there were two altimeters in this particular Lear Jet, but the instrumentation is still being checked." Schlossberg was sent a copy of this analysis and contacted. He stated that as he understood it, the cause of the crash was a faulty altimeter. He took the technicians' word there was no evidence of sabotage. Steve Schlossberg told this researcher: "It's not my field. The technical part of the report was like a foreign language to me. I was impressed with the honesty of the people who were doing this." He did not believe Walter Reuther's death was the result of a conspiracy, nor did he believe CIA had any motive to assassinate him. He elaborated: "Walter Reuther became a dove in the middle of the Hubert Humphrey - NIXON election. He was very much a hawk. A wonderful guy, but he was for the war. He was Johnson's biggest supporter. Walter finally opposed the war, but he never made it into a crusade. In the future he probably would have, he was a wonderful guy and it's too bad he didn't come around earlier. But when he did come around, it was great, and who knows what he would have developed into. Probably something wonderful."

HEMMING commented: "Sabotage of the altimeters would not do the job. Every instrument rated pilot sets the field elevation published on the front of the control tower when he takes off. You check if what the tower just gave you is correct. He'd know something was wrong. The fact it was a war surplus altimeter is strange. They don't put them in Lear Jets. Instrument Landing System, ILS, is a separate instrument you are viewing that had the cross-hairs. You're going up against an instrument pilot who's been through partial panel training, where you have a failure of half your critical instruments. You don't file with just one clue. There was also a radar altimeter."

ANALYSIS

NIXON called Walter Reuther's death "a deep loss." With Walter Reuther dead, AFL-CIO President George Meany's hawkish views on the Vietnam war went unopposed. Of the Vietnam war, Walter Reuther had stated: "It has divided this nation. It is wasting our resources that we need at home and it is tarnishing our moral credentials in the world." Victor Reuther: "My brother came out against it and that opposition persisted through the Johnson years. Vietnam soured the relationship between Johnson and my brother."

Victor Reuther now believes that sabotage was involved in his brother's death; however, he did not believe it was the CIA: "What I did not garner from the material you sent me was that it was the CIA...there are all kinds of wing groups, who could hire sophisticated people; there was a history of right-wing attacks on us." It was explained to Victor Reuther that an intelligence agency was often involved in sabotage of a sophisticated nature. Victor Reuther wondered if organized crime or the Communist Party was involved. It was pointed out to Victor Reuther that no mafia figures had offered valid information on the plane crash. Victor Reuther conceded that this was true. He added that he believed the altimeter had been tampered with during the earlier plane crash, and that the two accidents were related.

THEORY OF CRASH OF UNITED FLIGHT 533 DECEMBER 8, 1972

By November 1972 HUNT was blackmailing the White House for $100,000. White House aide Fred LaRue gave Manuel Artime at least $21,000 to distribute to the families of the Watergate burglars.

HUNT could have implicated NIXON in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But did HUNT have any evidence? Had HUNT entrusted it to his wife while he was in prison? NIXON may have believed DOROTHY HUNT possessed evidence that linked him to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

As stated, DOROTHY HUNT was killed in the airplane crash of United Airlines Flight 533 on December 8, 1972, at Chicago's Midway Airport. UAL 533 was on its way from Washington, D.C., to Omaha, Nebraska, with an intermediate stop at Midway Airport. There were 55 people aboard, including five children and two infants. After Charles Colson became a born-again Christian, he stated: "I don't say this to many people because they think I am nuts. I think they killed DOROTHY HUNT. I really do..." HOWARD HUNT: "When I see these repetitive allusions to my wife's death as having somehow been caused by the CIA, I think that is really enough...if my wife had been the only one killed that would have been one thing...but 40 people..."

ANALYSIS

A detailed analysis of the Aircraft Accident Report prepared by the National Transportation Safety Board on the crash indicated that the Boeing 737 crashed because of instrument sabotage that engendered pilot error. In its report, however, the NTSB attributed the cause of the crash only to pilot error. The report was unofficial. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman John Reed, "was not present and did not participate in the adoption of this report." The report went unsigned.

The National Transportation Safety Board Report blamed "the Captain's failure to exercise positive flight management during the execution of a non-precision approach, which culminated in a critical deterioration of airspeed in the stall regime..."

THE FINAL DESCENT

At 2:26 p.m. the Captain ordered the crew of United Airlines Flight 533 to do a final descent check. At 2:27 p.m., United Air Lines Flight 533 was issued a missed-approach clearance by Midway Airport control tower: "United Flight 533, execute a missed approach..." Just as the sound of word "execute" began, the sound of the stickshaker, which was a device that sent vibrations through the cockpit several seconds before an aircraft was about to go into a stall, was heard on the tapes recovered from the cockpit voice recorder. Captain Whitehouse, the pilot of United Air Lines 533, age 44, had been employed by United Airlines for almost 20 years. He had accumulated a total of 18,000 hours flying time, of which 2,435 were in a Boeing 737.

ANALYSIS

Every pilot was taught that when a stall occurs, he should point the aircraft's nose slightly downward by extending his flaps, then immediately accelerate the engines to increase thrust. HEMMING told this researcher: "When you get a stall you drop the nose. The last thing you do is add power because that will tend to raise your nose. Put you nose down first then add power, which lessens your rate of descent. Change the angle of attack of your wings which get more airflow going across the wings creating more lift. Then add power to kill the rate of descent. Your rate of descent has slackened off, but your nose is still pointing down." Most survivors reported that, just before the crash, contrary to being nose-down, the aircraft went into a very high angle of attack. HEMMING told this researcher: "Whitehouse realized he was going to crash and tried to drag his tail to cut down his speed." Some survivors believed that there was a rapid application of power before impact. An analysis of the cockpit voice recorder tapes found by the General Electric Research Corporation did not conclusively show this power increase.

The cockpit voice recorder revealed that when the stickshaker went off at what was thought to be 1000 feet because of altimeter readings, Captain Whitehouse ordered the Second Officer to release the flaps to point the airplane's nose downward and get out of the stall. The Second Officer acknowledged the Captain's last command by saying: "Flaps 15." The Second Officer then said "I'm sorry." The National Transportation Safety Board stated that when faced with a stall, the Captain had decided to reconfigure the aircraft by extending the flight flaps because, within two seconds of the onset of the stickshaker, he asked for "more flaps." The National Transportation Safety Board stated that following this order, there was a sound indicative of flap lever movement. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that it was Captain Whitehouse's error - failing to realize the flaps were already extended to 30 degrees and ordering the additional 15-degree extension while making a non-precision landing - that caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board: "The 15 degrees was added to the 30 degrees of extension that was accidentally there, so the aircraft continued to stall."

Eight seconds after the Second Officer said: "I'm sorry," United Air Lines Flight 533 crashed into several houses located near Midway Airport. Forty passengers and three crew members were killed. Two persons on the ground received fatal injuries. The aircraft itself was largely destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire. Ground damage "precluded any determination of the pre-impact integrity of the control system." If this was so, how did the National Transportation Safety Board arrive at it's figure of the 30 degrees of extension that was "accidentally" there.

HEMMING told this researcher: "For the pilot to say 'flaps' then '15 degrees' - they ain't supposed to be at 15 degrees that quickly. It's deadly for those flaps to come up in a hurry when you are executing a missed approach. You'll sink. You got a stickshaker and ask for more flaps - that's the last thing you do. You're gonna start milking them flaps up. You're at that altitude and you have a stall, you've got to execute a missed approach. Nose down, full power. He's telling you what it says on the instrument. You run that xxxxer to 15 degrees below 500 feet you're going to die. He said he was sorry."

ANALYSIS

There was confusion in the cockpit during crash. The cause of this confusion would have become apparent had the flight recorder functioned properly.

THE DISABLED FLIGHT RECORDER

Eighty-two minutes after takeoff (approximately 14 minutes before the accident), the Fairchild Flight Data Recorder stopped functioning: "Flight recorder examination showed that a mitre gear (part of the drive gear assembly) had slipped on its shaft, causing the recorder to stop functioning." The cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the wreckage, revealed that when the flight recorder went off, a light went on in the cockpit and Captain Whitehouse asked: "Recorder go off?" The second officer: "Yeah." Captain Whitehouse: "See what's wrong, will ya...sounds to me like a circuit breaker...yeah, I just meant, I thought you'd better check everything..." The cockpit voice recorder revealed the Second Officer activated the circuit breaker that fused the power going to the flight recorder and reported: "It tests...I think its okay. I think its working...it says 'Off' but the signal, the encode light comes on and it shows, indicating taping. Christ, I can't even find the circuit breaker for this (deleted) flight recorder...I don't know, I get a reaction when I pull the AC, no reaction when you pull the DC though, you want me to call maintenance?" Captain Whitehead ordered the Second Officer to immediately call it in. Double click here to see a photograph of the flight recorder. [FlightRecorder.JPEG] The recorder was installed on the day of the accident, and had last been overhauled on November 11, 1972, only two months before it malfunctioned. The Flight Recorder Group of the National Transportation Safety Board found: "No evidence of recorder malfunction in any of the parameters as determined by examining previous flights contained on this foil medium."

ANALYSIS

The mitre gear slipped because a saboteur had loosened its set screw. (The Kollsman Instrument Report asked: "if the questionable calibration arm set screws were loose...") HEMMING told this researcher: "That was very unusual. The thing is wired into the aircraft's electrical system and has its own backup battery. A power failure doesn't shut it down. I doubt if it was coincidental. How many wrecks do you have in the history of the NTSB where you could recover the flight recorder but it didn't work?"

THE TESTIMONY OF JAMES W. ANGUS BEFORE THE NTSB

Q. Will you state your full name.

A. James W. Angus.

Q. And what is your address?

A. 57 Westervelt Avenue, Baldwin, New York.

Q. What is your occupation?

A. I am staff engineer with Kollsman Instruments Company.

Q. Will you tell us how long you have been employed by Kollsman Instruments?

A. I have been employed with Kollsman since 1942 with the exception of a short period of a year and a half.

Q. Would you briefly describe your background and training and experience with Kollsman leading to your current position?

A. I have a bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. At Kollsman I have held assorted positions, starting as a tool inspector, becoming an experimental machinist and experimental technician, a designer, and finally an engineer.

Q. Would you describe your duties and responsibilities in your present position?

A. My primary duties are to develop pressure sensitive equipment. I also assist in giving technical assistance in areas where it is requested under special occasion.

SENIOR HEARING OFFICER HENDRICKS

Exhibit 9-G is identified as a report of an examination of altimeters and air data computers recovered from the Boeing 737, United Airlines Flight 553. Exhibit 9-C-1 is photographs altimeters and air data computers recovered from flight 553. Exhibit 9E, excerpts from Boeing 737 instruction manual regarding the pilot static system.

Q. Mr. Angus, I would like for you to start by describing the altimetry system that is install in Boeing 737, and you may use Exhibit 9E for referral. I would like you to point out those components furnished by Kollsman.

A. Our involvement with the 757 air data computer and the servo-automatic computers for this particular aircraft. The central air data computer is a device which accepts inputs of static pressure, total pressure, temperature and electrical power. We sense the pressure functions and by means of servo systems, compute associated outputs that are used in various positions around the airplane. The sensors, sender portion of the air data computer ,consist essentially of mechanisms somewhat similar to what is contained in altimeters and airspeed indicators. That is, capsules which are responsive to the particular air pressures being supplied. And this particular information is converted into angular motion which ultimately becomes part of a synchotel system and combined with a servo, it positions all of the necessary output devices in accordance with program established by the specification for the air data computer, the output devices are in the forms of syncros, potentiometers, decoders, and reliability signals.

Included with the air data computer is a monitor system for each loop. This monitor determines that the servo system is properly following up each of the sensed values. If, as in the case of the altimeter, the servo system were to get out of track by as much as 100 feet, it would automatically disconnect the system. The way it does this, it cuts off the reliability signals that are sent to each of the using devices. So that any device in the airplane receives not only data from the air data computer, but it receives a validity signal which indicates whether or not the information should be used. The functions that are sent out are sent to indicators on the panel, auto-pilot, the flight recorder, the cabin pressurization system, and the transponder for reporting altitude. The altimeters are what are sometimes referred to as servo pneumatic altimeters. These altimeters have two modes of operation which are selectable by the pilot. In the standby mode of operation, the instrument will operate as a normal pressure sensitive device in accordance with the requirements of FAA/T on C10 Beacon. If it is elected, the indicator my also operate as a servo-repeater from the altitude data transmitted by the central air data computer. In order to operate in this mode, the pilot must actuate a switch knob on the face of the altimeter, which puts it in corrected mode of operation. In this mode of operation, the overall accuracy is improved from approximately ½ a percent system to about 2/10 of a percent accuracy.

Q. The corrected mode would be the normal side of the operation?

A. I believe the way the airline uses the term, the corrected mode is the normal side of operation.

Q. And I am sorry if I missed it, but there are two such systems in the aircraft?

A. Yes, there are two completely different independent systems. There is a central air data computer for the captain's side with his own indicator, and there s a central air data computer for the first officers side that he has his own independent altimeter. As I understand it there are independent static systems supplying each of these units.

Q. Where does Kollsman interface with Boeing in this system?

A. In each case there is a Boeing specification which determines what the inputs are that you receive and what specification level these inputs would be provided to. In the case of pressure, they give us certain -- we have to provide certain cords on the devices that will tie up the lines in the aircraft, electrical connectors -- it is pretty much standardized, what pins are used for each function.

Q. I believed you mentioned the monitor tripout. Can you describe the monitor tripout as it effects the altimeter. Does this go into the standby mode when the CADAC trips out?

A. The air data computer will supply precise altitude information to the altimeter. If, for some reason, the altitude module in the air data computer determines that the information is unreliable, it will automatically cut off the reliability signal going to the altimeter.

Q. Is there any other protection in the event of a legitimate signal which is erroneous coming from the central air data computer?

A. The altimeter also contains its servo-monitor. There are two basic modes of servo detection in the altimeter. First would be if the servo system in the altimeter does not track that output of the air data computer. If there is a 50 foot disagreement between the altimeter and the air data computer, the altimeter will automatically revert to standby operation. That will be operating as a straight TSO altimeter. At the time this occurs, there is a flag on the dial which indicates it goes from the corrected mode to the standby mode.

Q. You said this occurs with a 50 foot --

A. Fifty foot separation, that is correct.

Now, in addition to this, we have what is known as a limiting device. People are always concerned and rightly so, for some reason that the servo might run away. If, for example, servo in the air data computer were to run away, we would provide a limited device in the altimeter and at certain pre-selected levels after the altimeter has responded to the corrected mode. It will then be limited in total correction capabilities at the point the monitor will cut the altimeter off, even though the air data computer might want to drive further.

Q. What kind of error would this generate maximum?

A. The error is a variable error with altitude, so that you can take care of increased tolerances at high altitude. At sea level this error would amount to approximately 350 feet.

Q. At what phase of the investigation into the accident of United 533 did your participation start?

A. We started when the instruments had been recovered and they were returned to United at San Francisco. We joined the committee at the United overhaul base and participated with them.

Q. You participated in the examination of both altimeters and the central air data computer, is that correct?

A. That is right, two data computers and two altimeters.

Q. And you prepared Exhibit 9-C to describe the extent of your participation and findings, is that correct.

A. That is correct.

Q. I would like you to refer to refer to Exhibit 9-C-1, answering the following, if you would please. Could you use the photographs and describe the general condition of the Captain's altimeter when it was first received by you?

A. I might mention before we go ahead that is all of these findings, the committee was present, and in general, I don't know of an area that doesn't exist, the committee in general agreed with the findings. These are not single person findings.

Q. Yes, sir.

A. The altimeter suffered primarily what appeared to be fire damage. There was some small indication of impact damage, but the primary source of the difficulty here was that the exterior of the case of the altimeter, which has an enamel paint which is baked on at the time of manufacture, this paint was actually burned off in many areas. With this burning off of the paint, all of the pressure seals in the instrument were no longer active.

The covered glass was cracked and it appeared to be intact, which gave us the impression that this was a thermostress problem, rather than breakage due to impact shock. The rear connector on the instrument was contaminated with a fire material which more than likely was the mating connector on the electrical harness supplied in the airplane. This material had to actually be dug out. It was quite solid. Then the electrical connector was cleaned off. We observed the instrument. We shook it lightly; it didn't have any particular noisiness inside which might indicate broken parts rolling around. We felt the instrument was capable of further testing.

Q. May I refer you to photograph 1-1 in your exhibit, please.

A. Yes, I am looking at that.

Q. The indicated dial is set 30.035 thereabout. Have you any reason to believe this setting had been changed since impact?

A. Yes. It is my understanding after the instruments had been recovered at the accident site, and as I understand it, notes were taken and photographs were taken of the instrument as mounted on the panel, that subsequently the barrel knob was rotated to see if the pointers were still operable and the particular setting that you see there is the setting that happened to be left on the instrument at the time that it was received in the United Shop.

Q. Could you briefly describe for me the functional test unit was subjected to?

A. This altimeter was placed in a ball jar. The reason for that was that we could not pipe pressure into the altimeter and maintain a reading due to the leakage from the various seals.

Without making any further adjustments to the altimeter, we connected this bell jar, which is a sealed chamber that you can look through and observe the altimeter inside of it, connected this chamber to a barometer and programmed pressure into the chamber, and each specific instance we brought the altimeter to an indicated value in 200 foot stops, going from 0 to 2000 feet.

At each time that we reached stabilization, we measured the pressure within the chamber by means of the barometer that was attached to it. We then computed, based upon the indicated values, pressure values, and the setting, we computed that the indicator had, in its present state, had an average error of approximately 150 feet in the minus direction.

Q. In which?

A. In the minus direction. We then took the same altimeter and just rotated the barrel knob to the 29-92 position, which is the standard position for performing tests on an instrument of this type, and then programmed corrected pressures into the instrument. And putting corrected pressures into the instrument, we then read the instrument error. Now, the instrument error in this case averages out to approximately minus 120 foot value. The reason for the disagreement in this particular case between the first test and the second test -- excuse me. Am I getting ahead? Do you want the reason now?

Q. Yes, go right ahead.

A. The reason we felt the disagreement existed was because due to the high temperature exposure of the unit, the operation of the fundamental mechanism was not as smooth as it would be in normal conditions. And operating somewhat erratically, you would not be perfectly sure exactly where the first level was when we were setting the pointer on the instrument. The second case, you program in a very specific pressure, vibrate the instrument, and then take a reading when it settled out. So using a control standard that is much more precise in the second case, the results tend to be more meaningful.

Q. And the error was still in the same direction?

A. Same direction, but much more repeatable all the way up. Used the same 2000 foot altitude test span and 200 foot increment.

Q. Okay, do you have any explanation as to how the low effect offset may have occurred?

A. Yes. The subsequent examination of the instrument after taking the case off revealed that the instrument internally, where the mechanism is located, had reached temperatures approaching 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

We have since taken an equivalent instrument of the servo pneumatic variety and subject that instrument to a basic calibration. The instrument was seasoned overnight in the normal operation that you season these instruments to, which is to expose it to plus 70 degrees. The next morning it was rechecked again and the instrument was a stable instrument. We had to ascertain this fact first.

Then we placed the instrument in an oven. Now I am saying in an oven because you are essentially placing it in air which is heated to a specific temperature level, but it is no a high circulation factor. It is something -- there is a gentle fan in there that just keeps the air moving at a slow pace. This particular instrument was placed there, kept there for one hour at 360 degrees -- excuse me, let me go back.

In the test condition, we did not expose it to 360 degrees because that happens to be coincident with the melting temperatures of the solders used in the instrument, so for the purpose of the second instrument, to keep the data valid, we operated this at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. No, under these conditions, after aligning the instrument to return to room temperature, we the retested it and we have an average minimum error of 85 to 90 feet. Now that does not appear in the report because we just finished the test Monday. I received the data by phone on Tuesday. We will give you a supplement on that.

Q. Do the results of the pressure testing this particular altimeter in this manner, reflect operation in the servo mode as well as the stand-by?

A. No. When we were finished testing the instrument as noted previously, using control pressure inputs, that was as far as we went on the testing in San Francisco. At that point we concentrated our testing on some of the central air data computer testing. We subsequently resumed testing on this back at Elmhurst in our plant with the team present.

After verifying our initial data, we took the instrument out of the case, we found that all of the electrical components had been exposed to very high temperatures, capacitors had exploded, solder had melted. But the basic pressure mechanism was intact. So we could not operate the instrument in servo mode. We tried in California but we just blew fuses. At that point we just stopped, we didn't want to damage it.

Q. Can you describe the condition of the first officer's altimeter one as described by you?

A. The first officers altimeter was in very poor condition as received. This instrument was subjected to extensive fire and impact damage. The fire damage present was at a level that actually melted the aluminum away, which means it was in the temperature band of 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The base of the instrument was split open, and a goodly portion of it was missing. The rear mechanism in the instrument, which is the pressure sensing section, was also missing. The front end, the cover glass, and flange assembly, was missing. The display elements were still on the face of the instrument. Essentially all that we could say was present was a mechanism body with associated burned-out electrical components and the display portion of the instrument.

Q. Would you refer, please, to photograph 2-1 in Exhibit 9-C-1. Is this a photograph of the first officers altimeter?

A. Yes, that is a photograph taken at United as it was received.

Q. Can you explain the significance of the dial reading or apparent pointer positions and also the reading on the baro set on the altimeter as found?

A. The pointer positions are what are referred to in the trade as uncoordinated. The relative position of the pointers cannot exist based upon the normal reading that is present in the instrument. The baro set was approximately 30,685.

Q. Was there any indication on the dial of the instrument such as impact markings?

A. No.

Q. Anything to give you a clue as to what the altimeter may have been reading on impact.

A. No. We have very carefully examined the dial components under a binocular type microscope using lights and we could not find any signs that could be attributed to an impact mark.

Q. Would you briefly describe the significance of the photos that you have labeled 2-6, 2-7, and 2-8 in establishing the uncoordinated positions of the pointers?

A. Yes. While we were at United, United made available to the team a recently serviced altimeter in their possession of the same type. We very carefully measured reference points on each pointer of the first officers unit and then positioned the corresponding point on the sample altimeter to that value, and then photographed, the purpose being when you look at the photograph of the good instrument and the photograph of this instrument which had been damaged in the accident, it become readily apparent the pointers are discoordinated.

Q. The primary central air data computer, can you describe the coefficient of that component when you received it?

A. The air data computer received what we would consider a moderate amount of impact damage. By that I mean the cases were dented in several areas on each unit. The front face of the computer was also damaged rather significantly, and there was fire damage around various areas. Let me just check which ones -- the captain's, first the captains computer unit was not severely damaged, but the first officers unit was very badly burned to the point where even the knobs could not be rotated.

Q. Were the units, the internal portions, in operable condition?

A. Yes, they were operable.

Q. Could you describe for us, please, the tests to which these units were subjected?

A. Testing accomplished on the air data computers consisted, first, of isolating all of the output devices to obtain position data at the point of power cutoff to the computer. This was followed by a check of the altitude sensor by disconnecting it electrically from the computer, and running it strictly on a pressure function to determine the operability of the sensor, and again, there are means in there to determine the point at which power was cut off.

At this point we got both computers - we had the sensors and everything reconnected. We programmed standard pressures into the computer and measured the output of the --- find the sink rows. This was to determine if the signals going to the altimeter were within specification requirements.

In the case of the first officer's air data computer, it read approximately 3 ½ degrees low. This is roughly 45 to 50 feet. The captain's altimeter was well within spec, in general it was within approximately 7 feet. We then checked the correlation of the encoder, which is used by the transponder. This is checked by comparing the point at which you transition from one code value to the next as compared to the altitude data being transmitted to the indicator in the panel. This was in general less than one degree on both units, which is within 14 feet.

And individually we tried --- we worked the servo unit up to air data computer and ran them through the same range, 2,000 feet. The altimeter connected to the captain's air data computer generally responded to less than 10 feet. First officer's was between minus 30 feet and 50 feet. Following this, we ran what we call a coast test of the servo. This test was to determine if the computer was being driven as it would be in the case of a descent and power was cut off, would the computer continue to move, thereby destroying the validity of the original set of data we took off the output devices. This test was run at top rates of descent, 1,000 feet per minute and 2,500 feet per minute. In the case of the captain's altimeter, so-called coast effect was less than 7/10. The first officers altimeter approximately two feet. We considered this gave the original output devices reasonable values that we could accept.

Subsequent to this we performed a monitor check. This took special test equipment and this was done back in New York. What we did in this case was we isolated the modules for the air data computer and used jump cables, so that electrically they were connected even though they were set aside on some special test boxes. This allows us to, with the computer and the particular modules concerned, tied together, we can inactivate the servo, but still have power applied, and determine whether then monitors were still operating. The monitors on the both the first officer's and the captain's operated properly. This and some subsequent testing also verified not only did the monitors operate, but at the time that the monitor operates, the encoder output was cutoff automatically.

At one point in time the subject came up, were the sensors capable of performing when submitted to assorted acceleration factors, as you might have when the aircraft might pull some G's if you made a sharp pull up.

We made some special test pictures and adapted the altitude modules to a centrifuge. Units were tested individually for this. We subjected them from zero to one, back to zero; from zero to four G's, back to zero; then up to ten G's and back to zero. This was done at an altitude level of approximately 500 feet. The first officer's altitude module from the air data computer at 10 G's, the output varied 3 ½ degrees, which would be equivalent to 100 feet. The captain's module was within two degrees at 10 G's, which would put it at approximately 50 to 60 feet. There is no requirement for the 10 G's. The test was performed in any case. In further testing of the units, we became aware that when the overall air date computers were fired up for a short period of time, the reliability signal coming from the airspeed modules was in the unreliable state and then after approximately 30 seconds to a minute, reliability signal would come back on, indicating a valid state. This was an unusual condition so we decided to pull the airspeed sensor modules off and check them. This was the captain's incidentally, in case I didn't mention that. When we opened the airspeed sensor, we found there was a gear disengagement at the output stage on this particular sensor. The sensor has subsequently --- gear has been reengaged and everything operated normally.

We were concerned because when we looked at his particular sensor, the gearing is protected with stops, what we call stops in terms of functions, high and low; and also side stops so that the gears can't disengage by moving axis. All stops were in place. That particular sensor, we checked all the records, dates back to 1967.

We subsequently, as I mentioned, re-engaged the gears properly and then we took the sensor to our test laboratory and performed a shock test in the direction that was indicated as if this disengagement occurred due to shock. We felt that it would probably come in the fore and aft direction of the airplane so we checked it in that direction and levelwise what we did, we said we were not going to try to break it, the normal shock test for a unit of this type would be to expose it to 15 G's for approximately 11 millisecond pulse. In this case we first tested it at 20 G's, then we tested it at 25 G's. The instrument stayed in the sink and there was no disengagement. We stopped at this point because we felt that there may be further testing required for some other functions and it would not be conducive to break the instrument to prove one point.

The air data computers were made ready again and at the request of United, we ran what we called some computer step function tests. These tests consisted of programming pressure changes into the sensor and measuring the time that it would take the output of the air data computer to become stable at the secondary pressure. This was done for values of a thousand foot step function, 500 foot stop function, 200 feet and 100 feet. In the case of the captain's 1,000 foot function, the response of the overall system, -- this is, the air data computer, it was 5 seconds. When you get down to 100 feet, you are talking 3 or 2 ½ seconds. Subsequently we took the computers back up and in order to determine the operation of the monitors, we ran the air data computers at high velocity, and velocity chosen was that value at which point the servo would just indicate at the edge of the monitor trip. We're talking roughly 100 feet. The captain's air data computer would run at 21,400 feet per minute and the first officer's approximately 18,000 feet per minute. Now, that essentially completed the testing that was done on the air data computers.

Q. Thank you Mr. Angus. I may have misunderstood something, but I would like to refer you to page 10 in Exhibit 9-C. This test concerns the position evaluation of the sink rows with relation to the output of the central air data computer. I think I heard testimony, but you spoke of figures of 45 to 50 feet for the first officer's and 7 feet for the captain's primary unit. I would like clarification of what the 45 to 50 feet and the 7 feet are in reference to.

A. Those values don't appear on page 18. The values you are referring to come about on page 21, which is the programming correct pressure into the unit and measuring the output finding sink roll. The data on page 18 is the reading in the "as received" stats of each output module.

Q. Could you explain the page 18 figures for me again sir? I am specifically interested in trying to correlate the position of the sink rows in the "as received" condition to the known pressure altitude.

A. The sink rows that is used to drive the altimeter on the flight panel were read out, using an angle position indicator. Captain's read out, converted to feet, read out 652 feet; first officer's read out 558 feet. Now this difference here corresponds to 54 feet, but there would be some small difference depending upon the time sequence of power off, small differences in calibration, things of this nature.

Q. What barometric pressure would these figures refer to, sir?

A. These just refer to the "as received" state. They don't refer to any barometric pressure. They are measured against what we all call standard altitude. Standard altitude sometimes referred to by pilots at times as QNH altitude. This would be in the case of the altimeter, altimeter set for 29.92 power setting. If you wanted to convert these QNH values, it would be necessary to add the appropriate offset that would correspond to the local baro setting.

Q. How does the pilot produce the QNH baro set into the system?

A. He introduces it to the air data computer. He uses this in terms of his altimeter. When he program the baro setting into the altimeter it automatically puts the baro setting in whether he be using it in standby or servo mode of operation. It puts in an additive factor, adds so many feet to the display.

Q. So in order to correlate the "as received" position of the sink rows in the central air data computer to a given elevation on a given day, we would have to apply the QNH correction, is that correct?

A. That is correct.

Q. Have you done that for these figures?

A. The difference between the standard altitude and the pressure setting, as we were notified, 30.035 comes out to 120 feet. At 120 feet, each of these values, that would be the indicated value being presented to the crew at the time of power cut off.

Q. And knowing the elevation of the impact site is about 620 feet above mean sea level, that represents an error of about 150 feet, 100 feet. Is that correct?

A. That is correct.

Q. Thank you. The encoders verified were correlated with the sink positions?

A. That is correct. The photo transmission point is always at the 50 feet point. The captain had a 652 foot value so that was into the next code bit, which was 700 feet.

Q. Now I would like to refer you to page 27 in this. Again it may be misunderstanding on my part, but I thought that I heard you say that the acceleration test showed an error of approximately 100 feet. And on page 27 I see a statement that all three positions maximum deviation of model sensored was one degree or 27 feet, for acceleration from zero to 10 G's.

A. When we do a test that is not a standard test for that particular equipment, we always try, particularly in the case of an accident, equipment, we always try to get an equivalent item. So in this particular case we took a sensor that was in stock and first ran the test through on the sensor. That particular sensor was within one degree on all the tests. The data for the two sensors involved is contained on the next page, and that data contains the difference values that I quoted previously.

Q. Were there any other significant findings in the evaluation of the units other than those already discussed?

A. On point we did, on the air data computers we did check the friction level of this and the friction level was down on the order of 2 feet. I think it was two feet on one and seven feet on the other one. We have checked the captain's altimeter for lead effect on the captain's, and he is coming out very close to what we consider nominal.

Q. And Mr. Angus, I can't find it right now, but in the report there is a reference to white flaking material in the static report of one of the central air data computers. Could you amplify that a little for me?

A. Angus: Yes. After we had resumed testing this equipment in Elmhurst, when we were running the monitor test, as I previously mentioned, we had to remove the altitude modules from the Central Air Data Computer so we could run a jumper cable. So it would be possible to interrupt the servo motor pilot. When we separated the module, I am not sure which one it is, that was the first officers unit. When we took the first officer's altitude module off the computer chassis. There was a white, flaky, material over the connecting port as used to connect the module into the plumbing with the central air data computer that goes to the connection tubes. There was a small deposit, probably two or three cubic millimeters, of very flaky material. We had noted back at United in San Francisco that one of the static lines had some water in it which looked to be like it might be water that had accumulated because of fire. The water wasn't clean.

Q. Was there any analysis of the white, flaky, material?

A. We, that white flaky material was placed in a sealed box and it is available to the Board if they want to spectrograph it. Now the general assumption on the flaky material is this is contained on a stainless steel pressure port which fits into an anodized aluminum. It was just felt his loose -- all the people called in with reasonable chemical background indicated it was more likely an aluminum oxide.

CHAIRMAN BURGESS: What?

THE WITNESS: An aluminum oxide.

MR. STREET: I have no questions.

MR. LAYNOR: I wasn't through.

CHAIRMAN BURGESS: I am sorry, Mr. Laynor is still continuing.

MR. STREET: I am sorry.

(Discussion off the record)

BY MR. LAYNOR

Q. Mr. Angus, I believe in your testimony you commented to the fact that to your knowledge of these systems are connected to two completely independent static systems. It is true then that both static systems will have to be effected in a similar manner to cause essentially the same error in the system?

A. It would appear that way due to the fact they have this more than tolerance difference in the particular outputs of the computers.

Q. Are the static systems, again to your knowledge, you could refer to exhibit 9-E, were the static systems which feed the central air data computer common in any way to the captain to the captain or first officers air speed indicators?

A. First of all, you are talking, "as received" correct?

Q. Yes, sir. First of all, as I understand it, the central air data computer themselves transmit no information to the air speed indicators in the cockpit. It this true?

A. This is correct.

Q. And the airspeed indicators?

A. The pitot input -- the panel requirements for pilot pressure come off separate pitot tubes according to this diagram. In other words, there is a pilot tube that supplies the captain's panel, a pilot supply for the first officer's panel, pilot for each air data computer independently.

Q. How about static systems, sir?

A. It would appear to be the same way for the static except in the case of static there, they cross over -- in other words, there is a right and a left pitot static tube tied together to provide what is called a balanced pitot static. I think in this case there were dual statics for each side, thus providing a line for the indicator separate.

Q. Okay. I realize that the static system installation is not in your area of responsibility, but can you discuss possible reasons why the static system errors -- although of a magnitude reflected in the sink row telepositions in the central or data computers, could have occurred? Can you offer any rational explanation as to why the central air data computers could have been reading in the direction they were?

A. I am afraid I will have to pass that at the moment.

THE TWO DISABLED ALTIMETERS

James Angus testified that he found contaminant: "The rear connector on the instrument was contaminated with a fire material which more than likely was the mating connector on the electrical harness supplied in the airplane. This material had to actually be dug out." He found flaky material: "There was a white, flaky, material over the connecting port as used to connect the module into the plumbing with the central air data computer that goes to the connection tubes. There was a small deposit, probably two or three cubic millimeters, of very flaky material." No spectrograph was run on the flaky material and there was no scientific evidence indicating that it was aluminum oxide.

HEMMING told this researcher: "When you land a big bird, you have got to know your precise altitude." At the time of the missed approach, the altitude of United Air Lines Flight 533 was thought by the First Officer to be approximately 1,000 feet above sea level. When the National Transportation Safety Board interviewed witnesses to the crash, however, it discovered that the aircraft descended from the cloud base at an estimated altitude of only 400 feet, heading in a northwesterly direction. Shortly thereafter it veered to the right, as the pilot began to execute the missed approach, and was on a northerly heading when the crash occurred. By this time, more altitude had been lost.

No meaningful altitude indications were obtained from either of the altimeters. Captain Whitehouse's altimeter was virtually intact, but "because of heat damage to the internal components, no assessment could be made of the pre-impact accuracy..." When Captain Whitehouse's altimeter was disassembled at the Kollsman Instrument Corporation, technicians observed and photographed foreign matter in its gears. Double click here to see the photograph, titled "Captain's Altimeter - Gear with contaminant in teeth." [Gear.JPEG] Angus never mentioned this.

THE DISENGAGED AIRSPEED INDICATOR

The Captain's airspeed indicator had also been tampered with. When it was tested, it remained at the high end of the airspeed system. The technicians from Kollsman Instruments reported: "The condition was isolated to a gear and a sector (non-linear) which had become disengaged. This allowed the output shaft to assume a high airspeed position regardless of the input airspeed value."When the technicians from Kollsman Instruments discovered this problem, they were, according to Angus, "concerned because when we looked at this particular sensor, the gearing is protected with stops, what we call end stops in terms of functions, high and low; and also side stops so the gears can't disengage by moving axle. All stops were in place. That particular sensor, we checked the records back to 1967."

THE CENTRAL AIR DATA COMPUTER

The National Transportation Safety Board also discovered common errors in two independent systems that "could have been transmitted from the Central Air Data Computer units to the altimeter of the First Officer." This static error may have been caused by the contaminant that was found in the altitude modules of the Central Air Data Computer. HEMMING told this researcher: "The Central Air Data Computer tells you if you've sprung a leak somewhere, or if something is contaminating your system etc. A little computer tells you right away, 'turn on your de-icer' various procedures. It's a warning system that tells you not to believe your gauges."

THE PREMATURE POWER FAILURE

The Central Air Data Computers were recovered and both units were capable of normal operation, but their fine altitude synchros showed an altitude higher than crash site's. Electronic measurement of the #1 fine altitude synchro in Captain's Central Air Data Computer altitude module showed a phase angle that corresponded to 772 feet above sea level. A similar measurement of the First Officer's #1 fine altitude synchro corresponded to 718 feet. The technicians at Kollsman Instruments checked the fine altitude synchro #2, and got similar readings. They checked the Coarse Synchro #2, the Cabin Pressure Potentiometer, and the TAT/EPRIL and obtained identical readings. This was odd, since when electrical power was removed for any reason, the altitude synchros did not move, but remained in their position at the moment of power removal. This indicated that the power going to the Central Air Data Computer was cut off at an altitude higher than that of the crash site, before the plane crashed, instead of on impact with the ground. Nonetheless, the NTSB concluded: "The static system errors reflected in the Central Air Data Computer readings at impact do not have a bearing on the events at Midway."

ANALYSIS

Even if we accepted the statement of the National Transportation Safety Board that pilot error was responsible for the crash, all the aforementioned malfunctions could have contributed to pilot error. The strongest evidence of sabotage was that the flight recorder had gone off 14 minutes before the accident, so the National Transportation Safety Board claimed it had very little to work with when it conducted its investigation. To compensate for this, it extrapolated flight path data from the traces registered by the flight in the Automated Radar Terminal Service (ART-III) at O'Hare International Airport, which had been tracking Flight 533. The National Transportation Safety Board, however, admitted that data obtained in this manner was far from precise, precluding an accurate determination of the nature and tempo of the events during the 61 seconds before impact.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK

Researcher Sherman S

kolnick was the first to point out that Flight 533 was sabotaged. Skolnick, however, added charges that Captain Whitehouse had been poisoned, and that Midway Control Tower, the Serrelli Mob and El Paso Natural Gas were in some way involved. Skolnick, who is Jewish, is an advisor to the crypto-Nazi organization, Liberty Lobby, which published Spotlight. Andrew St. George and Mark Lane were also connected with Liberty Lobby. HEMMING told this researcher: "A.J. just because they don't like Jews

you're prejudiced against them. Just because they gassed a few million, you're getting all upset."

ANALYSIS: INSTRUMENT SABOTAGE

The technology involved in loosening the set screw on the flight recorder, just enough so that the instrument would stop functioning 15 minutes or so before landing, indicated that this was a professional job. Someone had also manually disengaged the gears on Captain Whitehouse's airspeed indicator, and had rewired the plane's electrical system so that it would stop functioning prior to landing. In 1993 the final report of the National Transportation Safety Board on United Air Lines Flight 533's crash was still available to researchers, but the National Transportation Safety Board had routinely destroyed documents it was based on, since they were over 15 years old. The report mentioned the Central Air Data Computer readings, and the disabled flight recorder was noted in the cockpit voice recordings transcription; no mention, however, was made of the contaminant or the premature power cutoff.

NIXON

Minutes after the crash, 50 FBI agents rushed to the scene, conducting interviews and seizing evidence. John Reed, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, protested the actions of the FBI after the House Government Activities Subcommittee had pressured him to do so. In a letter to Acting FBI Director William D. Ruckelshaus, John Reed wrote that "for the first time in the memory of our staff" the FBI had interviewed witnesses and listened to control tower tapes before investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board did. William Ruckelshaus responded that the agents were investigating a Crime Aboard Aircraft, and were within the law, although he did admit that more than 50 agents were on the scene. [FBI 149-10024-12]

NIXON contemplated using the FBI to obtain documents he desired. White House/Special Operations Group member Jack Caufield said Charles Colson told him the Brookings Institution possessed papers needed by the Administration, and that the FBI had adopted a policy of coming to the scene of any suspicious fires in Washington, D.C. Jack Caufield believed Charles Colson had hinted that he should start a fire at the Brookings Institute enabling the FBI to make its appearance and steal the desired documents. [Wash. Post 11.22.74; Jack Anderson 8.9.74] G. Gordon Liddy reported: "The operation that we planned was to purchase several used fire engines from the market where they are available, have them painted and declared in the colors of the Washington, D.C., Fire Department, to have our Cuban assets dressed in the fireman's uniforms and attending the engines, to have a penetration which would then, during the period of time there would be no one there - so no one would be hurt - start a fire in the Brookings Institution. The first engines to respond would be ours. It would be our people who would enter, and in the guise of putting out the fire, they would take whatever it was that Mr. Colson wanted out of the Brookings Institution. [HUNT] came to me with this task from his principal, who was Mr. Colson."

One day after the crash of United Air Lines Flight 533, NIXON appointed Egil Krogh Under Secretary of Transportation. Egil Krogh controlled the parent agency of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aeronautics Administration. Ten days later, NIXON appointed Alexander P. Butterfield as the head of the Federal Aeronautics Administration.

BARKER stated that the death of Dorothy Hunt caused HUNT to give up blackmailing the White House and plead guilty. This benefited NIXON. John Dean discussed Mrs. HUNT'S death with NIXON:

Dean: Mrs. HUNT was the savviest woman in the world. She had the whole picture together before her death.

NIXON: Great sadness.

NIXON considered granting HUNT clemency if he were convicted in the Watergate affair: "I, uh, question of clemency...HUNT is a simple case. I mean, uh, after all, the man's wife is dead, was killed." When the FBI examined Dorothy Hunt's remains, it found $10,000. HUNT denied this was hush money, and he claimed it was going to be used to purchase a franchise for a Holiday Inn. The FBI investigated HUNT'S claim, and discovered that it was not normal for such a fee to be paid in cash and that such a fee would have had to be paid at the main office in Memphis, Tennessee.

J EDGAR HOOVER: ASSASSINATED WITH BUG KILLER

In October 1971 John Ehrlichman presented Nixon was a memo written by J. Gordon Liddy that concluded that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover should resign. Nixon believed that Hoover was unable to adequately cope with the violent anti-war movement that was sweeping the country because Hoover was unwilling to conduct warrantless searches. Hoover died on the evening of May 1, 1972, at his home in Washington, D.C. His housekeeper discovered his body alongside his bed at 9:00 a.m. The Justice Department said he died of natural causes. No autopsy was performed. J. Edgar Hoover, age 77, allegedly succumbed to high blood pressure; he had been suffering from a heart ailment for some time. In November 1973 Mark C. Frazier interviewed Watergate burglar Felipe De Diego. Frazier tricked Felipe De Diego into obliquely acknowledging having burglarized the home of J. Edgar Hoover. [Harvard Crimson 11.10.73] "Two burglaries took place at Hoover's Washington home. The first was in the winter of 1972 to retrieve documents that might be used for blackmail against the White House. "After the first burglary," according to Diego, "a second burglary was carried out; this time, whether by design or misunderstanding, a poison, [of the] thyon phosphate genre, was placed in Hoover's personal toilet articles. Hoover died shortly after that."

There is no such poison as “thyon phosphate” as it was probably spelled phonetically. There is an organophosphorus compound containing the elements phosphorus and carbon, whose physiological effects include inhabitation of acetylcholinesterase, which is vital for nervous system functioning. The pesticides malathion and parathion and virtually all nerve agents are organophosphorus compounds. Most exposure victims experience bradycardia (slowed and weakened heart rate) but pulse rate may be increased initially and tachycardia (The heart normally beats at a rate of about 60 to 100 beats per minute at rest. A rate faster than 100 beats a minute in an adult is called tachycardia) is more common in very severe poisoning. Parathion is rapidly absorbed through the skin and may cause systemic poisoning. In January 1976, 79 persons in Jamaica were acutely poisoned by the organophosphorus insecticide parathion. Seventeen died. It was ironic that J. Edgar Hoover, who was known for planting bugs, might have been assassinated with a bug killer.

Researcher Tony Summers reported that in 1988 STURGIS said that Felipe De Diego told him about a break-in at the home of J. Edgar Hoover immediately after his death: "Felipe told me about it. I suspected the CIA was behind it. I told him, 'I guess our friends probably wanted to go over there and see what kind of documents Hoover had stashed away.'" When Tony Summers asked STURGIS if he had been involved, he said: "I'm not saying 'yes' to my involvement. Let me say 'no' to that. It opens up a can of worms." [summers Secret Life J. Edgar Hoover p416] The FBI reported: "Subject BERNARD L. BARKER'S bank account showed large sum of money in his account in May 1972 amounting to $89,000. BARKER withdrew money in cash." [139-4089-311] The White House/Special Operations Group was interested in the death of J. Edgar Hoover. STURGIS, BARKER, Humberto Lopez and Pablo Fernandez attacked demonstrators at his funeral. Humberto Lopez told the FBI that he was "secretary of the Authentico Party headed by Carlos Prio Soccarras...He stated that the Authentico Party's office is located next to the office of BERNARD BARKER Associates. He advised that he has been on speaking terms with BERNARD BARKER for several years. He stated that, upon the death of John Edgar Hoover and upon learning that Mr. Hoover would lie in state on May 3, 1972, BARKER asked him as a representative of the Authentico Party to be his guest and go to Washington, D.C. to pay respects to the Director. Lopez stated he thought this was an excellent idea, as he was a great admirer of Mr. Hoover, and accepted the invitation. He stated that while in Washington, D.C., there was a brief melee with a hippie group who were engaged by the Miami contingent, but that no arrests were made although there was some press coverage to the incident... The following individuals stayed at the motel with him: Pablo Fernandez, Angel Ferrer, Reinaldo Pico, and FRANK FIORINI. The others he believed stayed in an older hotel which was located relatively close, namely BARKER, Martinez, V. Gonzalez, H. Gonzalez, and De Diego. Lopez explained that other than his work with the Authentico Party he does not consider himself an activist, and other than his slight relationship with BARKER, he was never closely associated with any other individual in this group. He advised that, while he believed BARKER paid the fare and lodging, he was given his ticket by Rolando Martinez, and that his hotel room which was single was also paid for by Martinez. He believed that his airline ticket and hotel registration was under the name Manuel Garcia. Relative to his background, he stated he was employed in the Ministry of Government under Dr. Grau in Cuba. In August 1960 he sought asylum in the Embassy of Brazil and stayed there until March 1, 1961, when he received asylum in Venezuela and was at the Embassy in Venezuela until he entered the United States on September 10, 1962, and was assigned INS # 11261938." [FBI 139-4089-34, 6.30.72]

MURRAY CHOTINER

Murray Chotiner was the political public relations man for Earl Warren during his gubinatorial campaign in California. Murray Chotiner had been associated with NIXON since 1946. When NIXON became the Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 1952, Murray Chotiner served as his campaign manager. In September 1953 Earl Warren was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Eisenhower. In 1966 Murray Chotiner was called before Senator John McClellan's committee investigating organized crime. Congressional investigator Robert F. Kennedy questioned Chotiner about his client, crime syndicate member Marco Reginelli, and demanded a list of Murray Chotiner's other clients. Dan Moldea reported that Murray Chotiner, and his brother Jack, handled 249 cases of mob figures arrested or indicted between 1949 and 1952. [Moldea, Hoffa Wars, Padington Press, 1978]

In 1968 syndicate member Mickey Cohen, who was serving Federal prison time, said that Murray Chotiner had solicited campaign contributions from him on behalf of NIXON. Meyer Harris Cohen (A.K.A. "Mickey" Cohen), the son of Jewish immigrants, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he started in the rackets. In 1940 Mickey Cohen moved to Los Angeles and worked with Jack Dragna and Meyer Lansky's partner, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. When Siegel was murdered by Meyer Lansky's hitmen in 1947, Mickey Cohen took over for him. California crime lord Jack Dragna became uncomfortable with Cohen, and numerous attempts were made on the life of Mickey Cohen. Meyer Lansky finally arranged for a truce between Dragna and Cohen.

In 1970 Murray Chotiner became NIXON'S Special Counsel; and in 1971, as a private attorney, he helped Teamster Union boss James Hoffa secure a Presidential pardon. Murray Chotiner was contacted by his friend, I. Irving Davidson, regarding this matter. [FBI FOIA Req. #72,182 approx. 500 pp.; HSCA OCR 11.2.78 Brady]

Prior to his testimony at the Watergate hearings, Chotiner broke his leg in an automobile accident and was taken to Bethesda Hospital in Maryland where he mysteriously died of an alleged embolism. The New York Times reported, that on January 24, 1974, Murray Chotiner's automobile collided with a Government-owned truck driven by Charles Mickens. Murray Chotiner died of a blood clot a week later, January 30, 1974, while still hospitalized for the automobile accident. [NYT 1.31.74] Inducing an embolism is a favored method of murder by hospital employees.

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THEORY OF CRASH OF UNITED FLIGHT 533 DECEMBER 8, 1972

By November 1972 HUNT was blackmailing the White House for $100,000. White House aide Fred LaRue gave Manuel Artime at least $21,000 to distribute to the families of the Watergate burglars.

HUNT could have implicated NIXON in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But did HUNT have any evidence? Had HUNT entrusted it to his wife while he was in prison? NIXON may have believed DOROTHY HUNT possessed evidence that linked him to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

As stated, DOROTHY HUNT was killed in the airplane crash of United Airlines Flight 533 on December 8, 1972, at Chicago's Midway Airport. UAL 533 was on its way from Washington, D.C., to Omaha, Nebraska, with an intermediate stop at Midway Airport. There were 55 people aboard, including five children and two infants. After Charles Colson became a born-again Christian, he stated: "I don't say this to many people because they think I am nuts. I think they killed DOROTHY HUNT. I really do..." HOWARD HUNT: "When I see these repetitive allusions to my wife's death as having somehow been caused by the CIA, I think that is really enough...if my wife had been the only one killed that would have been one thing...but 40 people..."

ANALYSIS

A detailed analysis of the Aircraft Accident Report prepared by the National Transportation Safety Board on the crash indicated that the Boeing 737 crashed because of instrument sabotage that engendered pilot error. In its report, however, the NTSB attributed the cause of the crash only to pilot error. The report was unofficial. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman John Reed, "was not present and did not participate in the adoption of this report." The report went unsigned.

The National Transportation Safety Board Report blamed "the Captain's failure to exercise positive flight management during the execution of a non-precision approach, which culminated in a critical deterioration of airspeed in the stall regime..."

THE FINAL DESCENT

At 2:26 p.m. the Captain ordered the crew of United Airlines Flight 533 to do a final descent check. At 2:27 p.m., United Air Lines Flight 533 was issued a missed-approach clearance by Midway Airport control tower: "United Flight 533, execute a missed approach..." Just as the sound of word "execute" began, the sound of the stickshaker, which was a device that sent vibrations through the cockpit several seconds before an aircraft was about to go into a stall, was heard on the tapes recovered from the cockpit voice recorder. Captain Whitehouse, the pilot of United Air Lines 533, age 44, had been employed by United Airlines for almost 20 years. He had accumulated a total of 18,000 hours flying time, of which 2,435 were in a Boeing 737.

ANALYSIS

Every pilot was taught that when a stall occurs, he should point the aircraft's nose slightly downward by extending his flaps, then immediately accelerate the engines to increase thrust. HEMMING told this researcher: "When you get a stall you drop the nose. The last thing you do is add power because that will tend to raise your nose. Put you nose down first then add power, which lessens your rate of descent. Change the angle of attack of your wings which get more airflow going across the wings creating more lift. Then add power to kill the rate of descent. Your rate of descent has slackened off, but your nose is still pointing down." Most survivors reported that, just before the crash, contrary to being nose-down, the aircraft went into a very high angle of attack. HEMMING told this researcher: "Whitehouse realized he was going to crash and tried to drag his tail to cut down his speed." Some survivors believed that there was a rapid application of power before impact. An analysis of the cockpit voice recorder tapes found by the General Electric Research Corporation did not conclusively show this power increase.

The cockpit voice recorder revealed that when the stickshaker went off at what was thought to be 1000 feet because of altimeter readings, Captain Whitehouse ordered the Second Officer to release the flaps to point the airplane's nose downward and get out of the stall. The Second Officer acknowledged the Captain's last command by saying: "Flaps 15." The Second Officer then said "I'm sorry." The National Transportation Safety Board stated that when faced with a stall, the Captain had decided to reconfigure the aircraft by extending the flight flaps because, within two seconds of the onset of the stickshaker, he asked for "more flaps." The National Transportation Safety Board stated that following this order, there was a sound indicative of flap lever movement. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that it was Captain Whitehouse's error - failing to realize the flaps were already extended to 30 degrees and ordering the additional 15-degree extension while making a non-precision landing - that caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board: "The 15 degrees was added to the 30 degrees of extension that was accidentally there, so the aircraft continued to stall."

Eight seconds after the Second Officer said: "I'm sorry," United Air Lines Flight 533 crashed into several houses located near Midway Airport. Forty passengers and three crew members were killed. Two persons on the ground received fatal injuries. The aircraft itself was largely destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire. Ground damage "precluded any determination of the pre-impact integrity of the control system." If this was so, how did the National Transportation Safety Board arrive at it's figure of the 30 degrees of extension that was "accidentally" there.

HEMMING told this researcher: "For the pilot to say 'flaps' then '15 degrees' - they ain't supposed to be at 15 degrees that quickly. It's deadly for those flaps to come up in a hurry when you are executing a missed approach. You'll sink. You got a stickshaker and ask for more flaps - that's the last thing you do. You're gonna start milking them flaps up. You're at that altitude and you have a stall, you've got to execute a missed approach. Nose down, full power. He's telling you what it says on the instrument. You run that xxxxer to 15 degrees below 500 feet you're going to die. He said he was sorry."

ANALYSIS

There was confusion in the cockpit during crash. The cause of this confusion would have become apparent had the flight recorder functioned properly.

THE DISABLED FLIGHT RECORDER

Eighty-two minutes after takeoff (approximately 14 minutes before the accident), the Fairchild Flight Data Recorder stopped functioning: "Flight recorder examination showed that a mitre gear (part of the drive gear assembly) had slipped on its shaft, causing the recorder to stop functioning." The cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the wreckage, revealed that when the flight recorder went off, a light went on in the cockpit and Captain Whitehouse asked: "Recorder go off?" The second officer: "Yeah." Captain Whitehouse: "See what's wrong, will ya...sounds to me like a circuit breaker...yeah, I just meant, I thought you'd better check everything..." The cockpit voice recorder revealed the Second Officer activated the circuit breaker that fused the power going to the flight recorder and reported: "It tests...I think its okay. I think its working...it says 'Off' but the signal, the encode light comes on and it shows, indicating taping. Christ, I can't even find the circuit breaker for this (deleted) flight recorder...I don't know, I get a reaction when I pull the AC, no reaction when you pull the DC though, you want me to call maintenance?" Captain Whitehead ordered the Second Officer to immediately call it in. Double click here to see a photograph of the flight recorder. [FlightRecorder.JPEG] The recorder was installed on the day of the accident, and had last been overhauled on November 11, 1972, only two months before it malfunctioned. The Flight Recorder Group of the National Transportation Safety Board found: "No evidence of recorder malfunction in any of the parameters as determined by examining previous flights contained on this foil medium."

ANALYSIS

The mitre gear slipped because a saboteur had loosened its set screw. (The Kollsman Instrument Report asked: "if the questionable calibration arm set screws were loose...") HEMMING told this researcher: "That was very unusual. The thing is wired into the aircraft's electrical system and has its own backup battery. A power failure doesn't shut it down. I doubt if it was coincidental. How many wrecks do you have in the history of the NTSB where you could recover the flight recorder but it didn't work?"

THE TESTIMONY OF JAMES W. ANGUS BEFORE THE NTSB

Q. Will you state your full name.

A. James W. Angus.

Q. And what is your address?

A. 57 Westervelt Avenue, Baldwin, New York.

Q. What is your occupation?

A. I am staff engineer with Kollsman Instruments Company.

Q. Will you tell us how long you have been employed by Kollsman Instruments?

A. I have been employed with Kollsman since 1942 with the exception of a short period of a year and a half.

Q. Would you briefly describe your background and training and experience with Kollsman leading to your current position?

A. I have a bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. At Kollsman I have held assorted positions, starting as a tool inspector, becoming an experimental machinist and experimental technician, a designer, and finally an engineer.

Q. Would you describe your duties and responsibilities in your present position?

A. My primary duties are to develop pressure sensitive equipment. I also assist in giving technical assistance in areas where it is requested under special occasion.

SENIOR HEARING OFFICER HENDRICKS

Exhibit 9-G is identified as a report of an examination of altimeters and air data computers recovered from the Boeing 737, United Airlines Flight 553. Exhibit 9-C-1 is photographs altimeters and air data computers recovered from flight 553. Exhibit 9E, excerpts from Boeing 737 instruction manual regarding the pilot static system.

Q. Mr. Angus, I would like for you to start by describing the altimetry system that is install in Boeing 737, and you may use Exhibit 9E for referral. I would like you to point out those components furnished by Kollsman.

A. Our involvement with the 757 air data computer and the servo-automatic computers for this particular aircraft. The central air data computer is a device which accepts inputs of static pressure, total pressure, temperature and electrical power. We sense the pressure functions and by means of servo systems, compute associated outputs that are used in various positions around the airplane. The sensors, sender portion of the air data computer ,consist essentially of mechanisms somewhat similar to what is contained in altimeters and airspeed indicators. That is, capsules which are responsive to the particular air pressures being supplied. And this particular information is converted into angular motion which ultimately becomes part of a synchotel system and combined with a servo, it positions all of the necessary output devices in accordance with program established by the specification for the air data computer, the output devices are in the forms of syncros, potentiometers, decoders, and reliability signals.

Included with the air data computer is a monitor system for each loop. This monitor determines that the servo system is properly following up each of the sensed values. If, as in the case of the altimeter, the servo system were to get out of track by as much as 100 feet, it would automatically disconnect the system. The way it does this, it cuts off the reliability signals that are sent to each of the using devices. So that any device in the airplane receives not only data from the air data computer, but it receives a validity signal which indicates whether or not the information should be used. The functions that are sent out are sent to indicators on the panel, auto-pilot, the flight recorder, the cabin pressurization system, and the transponder for reporting altitude. The altimeters are what are sometimes referred to as servo pneumatic altimeters. These altimeters have two modes of operation which are selectable by the pilot. In the standby mode of operation, the instrument will operate as a normal pressure sensitive device in accordance with the requirements of FAA/T on C10 Beacon. If it is elected, the indicator my also operate as a servo-repeater from the altitude data transmitted by the central air data computer. In order to operate in this mode, the pilot must actuate a switch knob on the face of the altimeter, which puts it in corrected mode of operation. In this mode of operation, the overall accuracy is improved from approximately ½ a percent system to about 2/10 of a percent accuracy.

Q. The corrected mode would be the normal side of the operation?

A. I believe the way the airline uses the term, the corrected mode is the normal side of operation.

Q. And I am sorry if I missed it, but there are two such systems in the aircraft?

A. Yes, there are two completely different independent systems. There is a central air data computer for the captain's side with his own indicator, and there s a central air data computer for the first officers side that he has his own independent altimeter. As I understand it there are independent static systems supplying each of these units.

Q. Where does Kollsman interface with Boeing in this system?

A. In each case there is a Boeing specification which determines what the inputs are that you receive and what specification level these inputs would be provided to. In the case of pressure, they give us certain -- we have to provide certain cords on the devices that will tie up the lines in the aircraft, electrical connectors -- it is pretty much standardized, what pins are used for each function.

Q. I believed you mentioned the monitor tripout. Can you describe the monitor tripout as it effects the altimeter. Does this go into the standby mode when the CADAC trips out?

A. The air data computer will supply precise altitude information to the altimeter. If, for some reason, the altitude module in the air data computer determines that the information is unreliable, it will automatically cut off the reliability signal going to the altimeter.

Q. Is there any other protection in the event of a legitimate signal which is erroneous coming from the central air data computer?

A. The altimeter also contains its servo-monitor. There are two basic modes of servo detection in the altimeter. First would be if the servo system in the altimeter does not track that output of the air data computer. If there is a 50 foot disagreement between the altimeter and the air data computer, the altimeter will automatically revert to standby operation. That will be operating as a straight TSO altimeter. At the time this occurs, there is a flag on the dial which indicates it goes from the corrected mode to the standby mode.

Q. You said this occurs with a 50 foot --

A. Fifty foot separation, that is correct.

Now, in addition to this, we have what is known as a limiting device. People are always concerned and rightly so, for some reason that the servo might run away. If, for example, servo in the air data computer were to run away, we would provide a limited device in the altimeter and at certain pre-selected levels after the altimeter has responded to the corrected mode. It will then be limited in total correction capabilities at the point the monitor will cut the altimeter off, even though the air data computer might want to drive further.

Q. What kind of error would this generate maximum?

A. The error is a variable error with altitude, so that you can take care of increased tolerances at high altitude. At sea level this error would amount to approximately 350 feet.

Q. At what phase of the investigation into the accident of United 533 did your participation start?

A. We started when the instruments had been recovered and they were returned to United at San Francisco. We joined the committee at the United overhaul base and participated with them.

Q. You participated in the examination of both altimeters and the central air data computer, is that correct?

A. That is right, two data computers and two altimeters.

Q. And you prepared Exhibit 9-C to describe the extent of your participation and findings, is that correct.

A. That is correct.

Q. I would like you to refer to refer to Exhibit 9-C-1, answering the following, if you would please. Could you use the photographs and describe the general condition of the Captain's altimeter when it was first received by you?

A. I might mention before we go ahead that is all of these findings, the committee was present, and in general, I don't know of an area that doesn't exist, the committee in general agreed with the findings. These are not single person findings.

Q. Yes, sir.

A. The altimeter suffered primarily what appeared to be fire damage. There was some small indication of impact damage, but the primary source of the difficulty here was that the exterior of the case of the altimeter, which has an enamel paint which is baked on at the time of manufacture, this paint was actually burned off in many areas. With this burning off of the paint, all of the pressure seals in the instrument were no longer active.

The covered glass was cracked and it appeared to be intact, which gave us the impression that this was a thermostress problem, rather than breakage due to impact shock. The rear connector on the instrument was contaminated with a fire material which more than likely was the mating connector on the electrical harness supplied in the airplane. This material had to actually be dug out. It was quite solid. Then the electrical connector was cleaned off. We observed the instrument. We shook it lightly; it didn't have any particular noisiness inside which might indicate broken parts rolling around. We felt the instrument was capable of further testing.

Q. May I refer you to photograph 1-1 in your exhibit, please.

A. Yes, I am looking at that.

Q. The indicated dial is set 30.035 thereabout. Have you any reason to believe this setting had been changed since impact?

A. Yes. It is my understanding after the instruments had been recovered at the accident site, and as I understand it, notes were taken and photographs were taken of the instrument as mounted on the panel, that subsequently the barrel knob was rotated to see if the pointers were still operable and the particular setting that you see there is the setting that happened to be left on the instrument at the time that it was received in the United Shop.

Q. Could you briefly describe for me the functional test unit was subjected to?

A. This altimeter was placed in a ball jar. The reason for that was that we could not pipe pressure into the altimeter and maintain a reading due to the leakage from the various seals.

Without making any further adjustments to the altimeter, we connected this bell jar, which is a sealed chamber that you can look through and observe the altimeter inside of it, connected this chamber to a barometer and programmed pressure into the chamber, and each specific instance we brought the altimeter to an indicated value in 200 foot stops, going from 0 to 2000 feet.

At each time that we reached stabilization, we measured the pressure within the chamber by means of the barometer that was attached to it. We then computed, based upon the indicated values, pressure values, and the setting, we computed that the indicator had, in its present state, had an average error of approximately 150 feet in the minus direction.

Q. In which?

A. In the minus direction. We then took the same altimeter and just rotated the barrel knob to the 29-92 position, which is the standard position for performing tests on an instrument of this type, and then programmed corrected pressures into the instrument. And putting corrected pressures into the instrument, we then read the instrument error. Now, the instrument error in this case averages out to approximately minus 120 foot value. The reason for the disagreement in this particular case between the first test and the second test -- excuse me. Am I getting ahead? Do you want the reason now?

Q. Yes, go right ahead.

A. The reason we felt the disagreement existed was because due to the high temperature exposure of the unit, the operation of the fundamental mechanism was not as smooth as it would be in normal conditions. And operating somewhat erratically, you would not be perfectly sure exactly where the first level was when we were setting the pointer on the instrument. The second case, you program in a very specific pressure, vibrate the instrument, and then take a reading when it settled out. So using a control standard that is much more precise in the second case, the results tend to be more meaningful.

Q. And the error was still in the same direction?

A. Same direction, but much more repeatable all the way up. Used the same 2000 foot altitude test span and 200 foot increment.

Q. Okay, do you have any explanation as to how the low effect offset may have occurred?

A. Yes. The subsequent examination of the instrument after taking the case off revealed that the instrument internally, where the mechanism is located, had reached temperatures approaching 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

We have since taken an equivalent instrument of the servo pneumatic variety and subject that instrument to a basic calibration. The instrument was seasoned overnight in the normal operation that you season these instruments to, which is to expose it to plus 70 degrees. The next morning it was rechecked again and the instrument was a stable instrument. We had to ascertain this fact first.

Then we placed the instrument in an oven. Now I am saying in an oven because you are essentially placing it in air which is heated to a specific temperature level, but it is no a high circulation factor. It is something -- there is a gentle fan in there that just keeps the air moving at a slow pace. This particular instrument was placed there, kept there for one hour at 360 degrees -- excuse me, let me go back.

In the test condition, we did not expose it to 360 degrees because that happens to be coincident with the melting temperatures of the solders used in the instrument, so for the purpose of the second instrument, to keep the data valid, we operated this at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. No, under these conditions, after aligning the instrument to return to room temperature, we the retested it and we have an average minimum error of 85 to 90 feet. Now that does not appear in the report because we just finished the test Monday. I received the data by phone on Tuesday. We will give you a supplement on that.

Q. Do the results of the pressure testing this particular altimeter in this manner, reflect operation in the servo mode as well as the stand-by?

A. No. When we were finished testing the instrument as noted previously, using control pressure inputs, that was as far as we went on the testing in San Francisco. At that point we concentrated our testing on some of the central air data computer testing. We subsequently resumed testing on this back at Elmhurst in our plant with the team present.

After verifying our initial data, we took the instrument out of the case, we found that all of the electrical components had been exposed to very high temperatures, capacitors had exploded, solder had melted. But the basic pressure mechanism was intact. So we could not operate the instrument in servo mode. We tried in California but we just blew fuses. At that point we just stopped, we didn't want to damage it.

Q. Can you describe the condition of the first officer's altimeter one as described by you?

A. The first officers altimeter was in very poor condition as received. This instrument was subjected to extensive fire and impact damage. The fire damage present was at a level that actually melted the aluminum away, which means it was in the temperature band of 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The base of the instrument was split open, and a goodly portion of it was missing. The rear mechanism in the instrument, which is the pressure sensing section, was also missing. The front end, the cover glass, and flange assembly, was missing. The display elements were still on the face of the instrument. Essentially all that we could say was present was a mechanism body with associated burned-out electrical components and the display portion of the instrument.

Q. Would you refer, please, to photograph 2-1 in Exhibit 9-C-1. Is this a photograph of the first officers altimeter?

A. Yes, that is a photograph taken at United as it was received.

Q. Can you explain the significance of the dial reading or apparent pointer positions and also the reading on the baro set on the altimeter as found?

A. The pointer positions are what are referred to in the trade as uncoordinated. The relative position of the pointers cannot exist based upon the normal reading that is present in the instrument. The baro set was approximately 30,685.

Q. Was there any indication on the dial of the instrument such as impact markings?

A. No.

Q. Anything to give you a clue as to what the altimeter may have been reading on impact.

A. No. We have very carefully examined the dial components under a binocular type microscope using lights and we could not find any signs that could be attributed to an impact mark.

Q. Would you briefly describe the significance of the photos that you have labeled 2-6, 2-7, and 2-8 in establishing the uncoordinated positions of the pointers?

A. Yes. While we were at United, United made available to the team a recently serviced altimeter in their possession of the same type. We very carefully measured reference points on each pointer of the first officers unit and then positioned the corresponding point on the sample altimeter to that value, and then photographed, the purpose being when you look at the photograph of the good instrument and the photograph of this instrument which had been damaged in the accident, it become readily apparent the pointers are discoordinated.

Q. The primary central air data computer, can you describe the coefficient of that component when you received it?

A. The air data computer received what we would consider a moderate amount of impact damage. By that I mean the cases were dented in several areas on each unit. The front face of the computer was also damaged rather significantly, and there was fire damage around various areas. Let me just check which ones -- the captain's, first the captains computer unit was not severely damaged, but the first officers unit was very badly burned to the point where even the knobs could not be rotated.

Q. Were the units, the internal portions, in operable condition?

A. Yes, they were operable.

Q. Could you describe for us, please, the tests to which these units were subjected?

A. Testing accomplished on the air data computers consisted, first, of isolating all of the output devices to obtain position data at the point of power cutoff to the computer. This was followed by a check of the altitude sensor by disconnecting it electrically from the computer, and running it strictly on a pressure function to determine the operability of the sensor, and again, there are means in there to determine the point at which power was cut off.

At this point we got both computers - we had the sensors and everything reconnected. We programmed standard pressures into the computer and measured the output of the --- find the sink rows. This was to determine if the signals going to the altimeter were within specification requirements.

In the case of the first officer's air data computer, it read approximately 3 ½ degrees low. This is roughly 45 to 50 feet. The captain's altimeter was well within spec, in general it was within approximately 7 feet. We then checked the correlation of the encoder, which is used by the transponder. This is checked by comparing the point at which you transition from one code value to the next as compared to the altitude data being transmitted to the indicator in the panel. This was in general less than one degree on both units, which is within 14 feet.

And individually we tried --- we worked the servo unit up to air data computer and ran them through the same range, 2,000 feet. The altimeter connected to the captain's air data computer generally responded to less than 10 feet. First officer's was between minus 30 feet and 50 feet. Following this, we ran what we call a coast test of the servo. This test was to determine if the computer was being driven as it would be in the case of a descent and power was cut off, would the computer continue to move, thereby destroying the validity of the original set of data we took off the output devices. This test was run at top rates of descent, 1,000 feet per minute and 2,500 feet per minute. In the case of the captain's altimeter, so-called coast effect was less than 7/10. The first officers altimeter approximately two feet. We considered this gave the original output devices reasonable values that we could accept.

Subsequent to this we performed a monitor check. This took special test equipment and this was done back in New York. What we did in this case was we isolated the modules for the air data computer and used jump cables, so that electrically they were connected even though they were set aside on some special test boxes. This allows us to, with the computer and the particular modules concerned, tied together, we can inactivate the servo, but still have power applied, and determine whether then monitors were still operating. The monitors on the both the first officer's and the captain's operated properly. This and some subsequent testing also verified not only did the monitors operate, but at the time that the monitor operates, the encoder output was cutoff automatically.

At one point in time the subject came up, were the sensors capable of performing when submitted to assorted acceleration factors, as you might have when the aircraft might pull some G's if you made a sharp pull up.

We made some special test pictures and adapted the altitude modules to a centrifuge. Units were tested individually for this. We subjected them from zero to one, back to zero; from zero to four G's, back to zero; then up to ten G's and back to zero. This was done at an altitude level of approximately 500 feet. The first officer's altitude module from the air data computer at 10 G's, the output varied 3 ½ degrees, which would be equivalent to 100 feet. The captain's module was within two degrees at 10 G's, which would put it at approximately 50 to 60 feet. There is no requirement for the 10 G's. The test was performed in any case. In further testing of the units, we became aware that when the overall air date computers were fired up for a short period of time, the reliability signal coming from the airspeed modules was in the unreliable state and then after approximately 30 seconds to a minute, reliability signal would come back on, indicating a valid state. This was an unusual condition so we decided to pull the airspeed sensor modules off and check them. This was the captain's incidentally, in case I didn't mention that. When we opened the airspeed sensor, we found there was a gear disengagement at the output stage on this particular sensor. The sensor has subsequently --- gear has been reengaged and everything operated normally.

We were concerned because when we looked at his particular sensor, the gearing is protected with stops, what we call stops in terms of functions, high and low; and also side stops so that the gears can't disengage by moving axis. All stops were in place. That particular sensor, we checked all the records, dates back to 1967.

We subsequently, as I mentioned, re-engaged the gears properly and then we took the sensor to our test laboratory and performed a shock test in the direction that was indicated as if this disengagement occurred due to shock. We felt that it would probably come in the fore and aft direction of the airplane so we checked it in that direction and levelwise what we did, we said we were not going to try to break it, the normal shock test for a unit of this type would be to expose it to 15 G's for approximately 11 millisecond pulse. In this case we first tested it at 20 G's, then we tested it at 25 G's. The instrument stayed in the sink and there was no disengagement. We stopped at this point because we felt that there may be further testing required for some other functions and it would not be conducive to break the instrument to prove one point.

The air data computers were made ready again and at the request of United, we ran what we called some computer step function tests. These tests consisted of programming pressure changes into the sensor and measuring the time that it would take the output of the air data computer to become stable at the secondary pressure. This was done for values of a thousand foot step function, 500 foot stop function, 200 feet and 100 feet. In the case of the captain's 1,000 foot function, the response of the overall system, -- this is, the air data computer, it was 5 seconds. When you get down to 100 feet, you are talking 3 or 2 ½ seconds. Subsequently we took the computers back up and in order to determine the operation of the monitors, we ran the air data computers at high velocity, and velocity chosen was that value at which point the servo would just indicate at the edge of the monitor trip. We're talking roughly 100 feet. The captain's air data computer would run at 21,400 feet per minute and the first officer's approximately 18,000 feet per minute. Now, that essentially completed the testing that was done on the air data computers.

Q. Thank you Mr. Angus. I may have misunderstood something, but I would like to refer you to page 10 in Exhibit 9-C. This test concerns the position evaluation of the sink rows with relation to the output of the central air data computer. I think I heard testimony, but you spoke of figures of 45 to 50 feet for the first officer's and 7 feet for the captain's primary unit. I would like clarification of what the 45 to 50 feet and the 7 feet are in reference to.

A. Those values don't appear on page 18. The values you are referring to come about on page 21, which is the programming correct pressure into the unit and measuring the output finding sink roll. The data on page 18 is the reading in the "as received" stats of each output module.

Q. Could you explain the page 18 figures for me again sir? I am specifically interested in trying to correlate the position of the sink rows in the "as received" condition to the known pressure altitude.

A. The sink rows that is used to drive the altimeter on the flight panel were read out, using an angle position indicator. Captain's read out, converted to feet, read out 652 feet; first officer's read out 558 feet. Now this difference here corresponds to 54 feet, but there would be some small difference depending upon the time sequence of power off, small differences in calibration, things of this nature.

Q. What barometric pressure would these figures refer to, sir?

A. These just refer to the "as received" state. They don't refer to any barometric pressure. They are measured against what we all call standard altitude. Standard altitude sometimes referred to by pilots at times as QNH altitude. This would be in the case of the altimeter, altimeter set for 29.92 power setting. If you wanted to convert these QNH values, it would be necessary to add the appropriate offset that would correspond to the local baro setting.

Q. How does the pilot produce the QNH baro set into the system?

A. He introduces it to the air data computer. He uses this in terms of his altimeter. When he program the baro setting into the altimeter it automatically puts the baro setting in whether he be using it in standby or servo mode of operation. It puts in an additive factor, adds so many feet to the display.

Q. So in order to correlate the "as received" position of the sink rows in the central air data computer to a given elevation on a given day, we would have to apply the QNH correction, is that correct?

A. That is correct.

Q. Have you done that for these figures?

A. The difference between the standard altitude and the pressure setting, as we were notified, 30.035 comes out to 120 feet. At 120 feet, each of these values, that would be the indicated value being presented to the crew at the time of power cut off.

Q. And knowing the elevation of the impact site is about 620 feet above mean sea level, that represents an error of about 150 feet, 100 feet. Is that correct?

A. That is correct.

Q. Thank you. The encoders verified were correlated with the sink positions?

A. That is correct. The photo transmission point is always at the 50 feet point. The captain had a 652 foot value so that was into the next code bit, which was 700 feet.

Q. Now I would like to refer you to page 27 in this. Again it may be misunderstanding on my part, but I thought that I heard you say that the acceleration test showed an error of approximately 100 feet. And on page 27 I see a statement that all three positions maximum deviation of model sensored was one degree or 27 feet, for acceleration from zero to 10 G's.

A. When we do a test that is not a standard test for that particular equipment, we always try, particularly in the case of an accident, equipment, we always try to get an equivalent item. So in this particular case we took a sensor that was in stock and first ran the test through on the sensor. That particular sensor was within one degree on all the tests. The data for the two sensors involved is contained on the next page, and that data contains the difference values that I quoted previously.

Q. Were there any other significant findings in the evaluation of the units other than those already discussed?

A. On point we did, on the air data computers we did check the friction level of this and the friction level was down on the order of 2 feet. I think it was two feet on one and seven feet on the other one. We have checked the captain's altimeter for lead effect on the captain's, and he is coming out very close to what we consider nominal.

Q. And Mr. Angus, I can't find it right now, but in the report there is a reference to white flaking material in the static report of one of the central air data computers. Could you amplify that a little for me?

A. Angus: Yes. After we had resumed testing this equipment in Elmhurst, when we were running the monitor test, as I previously mentioned, we had to remove the altitude modules from the Central Air Data Computer so we could run a jumper cable. So it would be possible to interrupt the servo motor pilot. When we separated the module, I am not sure which one it is, that was the first officers unit. When we took the first officer's altitude module off the computer chassis. There was a white, flaky, material over the connecting port as used to connect the module into the plumbing with the central air data computer that goes to the connection tubes. There was a small deposit, probably two or three cubic millimeters, of very flaky material. We had noted back at United in San Francisco that one of the static lines had some water in it which looked to be like it might be water that had accumulated because of fire. The water wasn't clean.

Q. Was there any analysis of the white, flaky, material?

A. We, that white flaky material was placed in a sealed box and it is available to the Board if they want to spectrograph it. Now the general assumption on the flaky material is this is contained on a stainless steel pressure port which fits into an anodized aluminum. It was just felt his loose -- all the people called in with reasonable chemical background indicated it was more likely an aluminum oxide.

CHAIRMAN BURGESS: What?

THE WITNESS: An aluminum oxide.

MR. STREET: I have no questions.

MR. LAYNOR: I wasn't through.

CHAIRMAN BURGESS: I am sorry, Mr. Laynor is still continuing.

MR. STREET: I am sorry.

(Discussion off the record)

BY MR. LAYNOR

Q. Mr. Angus, I believe in your testimony you commented to the fact that to your knowledge of these systems are connected to two completely independent static systems. It is true then that both static systems will have to be effected in a similar manner to cause essentially the same error in the system?

A. It would appear that way due to the fact they have this more than tolerance difference in the particular outputs of the computers.

Q. Are the static systems, again to your knowledge, you could refer to exhibit 9-E, were the static systems which feed the central air data computer common in any way to the captain to the captain or first officers air speed indicators?

A. First of all, you are talking, "as received" correct?

Q. Yes, sir. First of all, as I understand it, the central air data computer themselves transmit no information to the air speed indicators in the cockpit. It this true?

A. This is correct.

Q. And the airspeed indicators?

A. The pitot input -- the panel requirements for pilot pressure come off separate pitot tubes according to this diagram. In other words, there is a pilot tube that supplies the captain's panel, a pilot supply for the first officer's panel, pilot for each air data computer independently.

Q. How about static systems, sir?

A. It would appear to be the same way for the static except in the case of static there, they cross over -- in other words, there is a right and a left pitot static tube tied together to provide what is called a balanced pitot static. I think in this case there were dual statics for each side, thus providing a line for the indicator separate.

Q. Okay. I realize that the static system installation is not in your area of responsibility, but can you discuss possible reasons why the static system errors -- although of a magnitude reflected in the sink row telepositions in the central or data computers, could have occurred? Can you offer any rational explanation as to why the central air data computers could have been reading in the direction they were?

A. I am afraid I will have to pass that at the moment.

This is a fascinating article. I think it is worth dividing into different sections and posting in the "Political Conspiracy" section.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=209

I will post this section on the current debate on Dorothy Hunt.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3856

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