Mayday Over Wichita

by D. W. Carter

  208. “A Survey of the Visual Character and Design Principles for Building in the College Hill Neighborhood,” Design in the College Hill Neighborhood, September 1998, prepared by Winter & Company, Boulder, Colorado, Special Collections, Ablah Library, Wichita State University.

  209. Rebecca White, “College Hill History Part of Wichita’s Struggle for National Status,” interview with Jeff Roth, KWCH News, August 2, 2012, http://articles.kwch.com/2012-08-02/college-hill_33005802 (accessed October 3, 2012).

  210. Wichita Eagle, “Air Force Delve for Cause of Crash,” January 19, 1965.

  211. Wichita Eagle and Beacon, “Destruction Stunned City,” January 16, 1985.

  212. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 27–28.

  213. Ibid.

  214. Ibid., 30.

  215. Ibid., 29.

  216. Ibid., 33.

  217. Cotter, Jet Tanker Crash, 68–70.

  218. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 20.

  219. James E. Garmon interview in Cotter, Jet Tanker Crash, 105.

  220. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 34.

  221. Ibid., 57.

  222. Cotter, Jet Tanker Crash, 71.

  223. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 30.

  CHAPTER 11

  224. John F. Kennedy, Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHA-194-001.aspx (accessed June 3, 2012).

  225. Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power (New York: Alfred A. Knoft, 2012), 8. Caro also noted that although Andrew Johnson, a southerner from Tennessee, completed Abraham Lincoln’s term, he was not elected. Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 111.

  226. Kennedy, Radio and Television Report, June 11, 1963.

  227. Nell Irvin Painter, Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1976), 108–09.

  228. Benjamin Singleton, “Report and Testimony of the Select Committee of the United States Senate to Investigate the Cause of the Removal of the Negroes from the Southern States to the Northern States,” 46th Cong., 2nd sess., 1880, S. Rep. 693, III, 382, emphasis in original, Kansas State Historical Society Archives.

  229. Beccy Tanner, “‘District Was Meeting Place’: Former Slaves Started New Lives in Wichita,” Wichita Eagle, March 16, 1989.

  230. Singleton, Senate Report 693, III, 383–84.

  231. Craig Miner, Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854–2000 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 81.

  232. Warren M. Banner, A Review of the Economic and Cultural Problems of Wichita, Kansas, January–February, 1965 (New York: National Urban League, 1965), 3.

  233. Ibid.

  234. Louis Goldman, Carl A. Bell Jr. et al., School and Society in One City (Wichita. KS: USD 259, July 1969), 28; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, General Population Characteristics: Kansas (PC (1)-B18), Table 23.

  235. “Travel Kansas Cross-Roads of a Continent,” State Highway Commission of Kansas Map, 1945.

  236. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)—Wichita Section, Images of America: Wichita’s Legacy of Flight (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003), 71.

  237. AIAA, Wichita’s Legacy of Flight, 9.

  238. Gretchen Eick, “‘Lift Every Voice’: The Civil Rights Movement and America’s Heartland, Wichita Kansas, 1954–1972” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 1997), 77.

  239. Banner, Problems, 5.

  240. Ibid., 70.

  241. Gretchen Cassel Eick, Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954–72 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 24.

  242. Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Police-Community Relations in the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, July 1980), 7.

  243. Topeka Capital Journal, “23 Civilians Die,” January 17, 1965.

  244. Craig Miner, Wichita: The Magic City (Wichita, KS: Sedgwick County Historical Museum Association, 1988), 205.

  245. Miner, Magic City, 201.

  246. National Register of Historic Places, Calvary Baptist Church, Wichita, Kansas, National Register # 88001905, http://www.kshs.org/resource/national_register/nominationsNRDB/Sedgwick_CalvaryBaptistChurchNR.pdf (accessed June, 21, 2010); Dreck Spurlock Wilson, African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945 (New York: Routledge, 2004).

  247. Calvary Baptist Church at 601 North Water and the Arkansas Valley Lodge building at 615 North Main are all that remain of the African American business district. See Wichita Eagle, “District Was Meeting Place,” March 16, 1989. Josiah Walker reference cited in National Register of Historic Places, Calvary Baptist Church, Wichita, Kansas, National Register # 88001905.

  248. National Register of Historic Places, Calvary Baptist Church.

  249. Interview with Eric Key, recorded in Sunflower Journeys episode 1903—“Embracing Community” KTWU, 2006, produced by John Njagi.

  250. Eick, “‘Lift Every Voice,’” 79.

  251. Angela Miller, “Changes in Location of the African American Community in Wichita: An Overview with Three Oral Histories,” study for the Kansas African American Museum, History 520 (Wichita State University Class, Fall 2000, 11, Special Collections, Ablah Library, Wichita State University, Vertical File-Wichita-African American Community.

  252. Ibid., 11.

  253. Ibid.

  254. Eick, Dissent in Wichita, 79.

  255. Miner, Magic City, 205.

  256. Ibid., 206.

  257. Ibid., 205.

  258. Eick, Dissent in Wichita, 22. Eick also notes that the Piatt area east of Grove was not open to African Americans until the later 1950s. The homes in this area were initially starter homes, built for whites who migrated from Oklahoma and Arkansas to work in the aircraft industries.

  259. Gretchen Eick, interview with author, January 17, 2012.

  260. Ibid.

  261. Miner, Magic City, 171.

  262. Eick, “‘Lift Every Voice,’” 80.

  263. Banner, Problems, 70.

  264. Eick, “‘Lift Every Voice,’” 155.

  265. Banner, Problems, 70.

  266. Eick, “‘Lift Every Voice,’” 155.

  267. Al Polczinski, “The Negro in Wichita,” Wichita Beacon, July 5, 1967.

  268. Ibid.

  269. Sydney Harris, “How to End Prejudice,” Wichita Beacon, October 4, 1965.

  CHAPTER 12

  270. House interview.

  271. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 21.

  272. Ibid., 21–22.

  273. Mark 1:3 King James Version.

  274. Miner, Magic City, 206.

  275. Eagle, January 16, 1985.

  276. House interview.

  277. Deon Wolfenbarger, “African American Resources in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas,” Kansas State Historical Society, http://www.kshs.org/resource/national_register/MPS/AfricanAmericanResourcesinWichitaKS.pdf (accessed November 4, 2012), 15.

  278. Restrictive covenant in Wichita, Abstract of Title, Lot 22, Block 1, Paul’s Addition, quoted in Wolfenbarger, African American Resources in Wichita, 12.

  279. Mike Wright, What They Didn’t Teach You About the ’60s (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, Inc., 2001), 53.

  280. Ibid., 53.

  281. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 42.

  282. Topeka Capital Journal, “Bars Gleam Brightly,” January 17, 1965.

  283. Steve Sells, “Chute Cords’ Role Called Negligible in Jet Crash,” Wichita Eagle, January 20, 1965.

  284. USAF, Aircraft Accident/Incident Report of KC-135 #57-1442 (Raggy 42), 1965.

  285. Sells, “Chute Cords.”

  286. “Teardown Deficiency Report,�
�� 5A65-53-TDR-P, January 19, 1965.

  287. Sells, “Chute Cords.”

  288. Ibid.

  289. “Teardown Deficiency Report.”

  290. Ibid.

  291. National Museum of the Air Force, Republic F-105D Thunderchief & F-100 Super Sabre in Southeast Asia, http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=311 (accessed December 2012).

  292. Air Force Historian Dan Williams, e-mail to author, January 30, 2013; Steve Larsen, Heritage and Legacy: A Brief History of the 22d Air Refueling Wing and McConnell Air Force Base (Office of History 22d Air Refueling Wing, 2006), 49.

  293. While working for Boeing in 1965, Larry McDonough (who later became general counsel for Learjet) advised the author that several weeks after the crash he heard a Boeing employee (tug operator) speculate that a drogue chute from one of the bombers got sucked up into the KC-135’s engine. How the employee obtained such knowledge was never determined, and the rumor was deemed unfounded. Larry McDonough, telephone interview with author, January 18, 2013.

  294. Eugene Rogers, Flying High: The Story of Boeing and the Rise of the Jetliner Industry (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996), 180–81.

  295. “Tex Johnston” YouTube video, 1:44, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0sDN-CQZCs (accessed March 1, 2011).

  296. Sells, “Chute Cords.”

  297. In a letter dated January 27, 1965, from a Ms. Clemmons of the Institute of Logepedics, she mentioned the “many small children and adults” who would have perished if the plane would have crashed there.

  298. Gen. Murray M. Bywater, KAKE News, January 16, 1965, Tape #F0907, Special Collections, Ablah Library, Wichita State University.

  299. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 43–44.

  300. Survivor interview with author, January 11, 2012.

  301. Wichita Eagle and Beacon, January 17, 1965.

  CHAPTER 13

  302. Roe, “Report Reveals.”

  303. Ron Sylvester, “Federal Judge Wesley Brown Dies at Age 104,” Wichita Eagle, January 24, 2012. Kansas.com http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/24/2187734/federal-judge-wesley-brown-dies.html (accessed January 25, 2012).

  304. A. G. Sulzberger, “Wesley E. Brown, Oldest Judge in Nation’s History, Dies at 104,” New York Times, January 25, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/us/wesley-e-brown-oldest-judge-in-nations-history-dies-at-104.html?_r=0 (accessed January 25, 2012).

  305. Sylvester, “Federal Judge Wesley Brown.”

  306. Kent Britt, “Judge Removes Mystery Cloak from Jet Crash,” Wichita Beacon, March 28, 1967.

  307. Ibid.

  308. Ibid.

  309. Ibid.

  310. Boeing Company, “Flight Data Recorder Rule Change,” Aero Magazine 2 (Spring 1998), retrieved from http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_02/textonly/s01txt.html (accessed November 4, 2012).

  311. Wichita Eagle, “Air Force Delve For Cause of Tragedy,” January 19, 1965.

  312. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 43.

  313. Bill Hirschman, “Autopilot Suspected, but Cause Unknown,” Wichita Eagle and Beacon, January 16, 1985.

  314. Lawrence V. Mott, The Development of the Rudder: A Technological Tale, Studies in Nautical Archaeology 3 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997).

  315. USAF Pilot Ben Jamison, e-mail message to author, January 13, 2013.

  316. Flight Manual USAF series KC-135R/T aircraft T.O. 1C-135(K)(I)-1 Reference Data, Change 12-1, March 2011.

  317. Wolfgang Langewiesche, Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 185.

  318. Ibid., 185.

  319. Clark Tibbitts, “Inventions and Discoveries,” American Journal of Sociology 36, no. 6 (May 1931): 893, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2767450 (accessed November 4, 2011).

  320. Ibid.

  321. William Scheck, “Lawrence Sperry Genius on Autopilot,” Aviation History 15, no. 2 (2004): 46–61. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/14271981/lawrence-sperry-genius-autopilot (accessed November 20, 2011).

  322. Airlift Tanker: History of U.S. Airlift and Tanker Forces (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing, 1995), 60, italics added.

  323. Hirschman, “Autopilot Suspected.”

  324. Ibid.

  325. Testimony of William S. Goodin, Wichita Beacon, January 16, 1965.

  326. USAF Pilot Ben Jamison, e-mail message to author, January 13, 2013.

  327. Hirschman, “Autopilot Suspected.”

  328. Second Air Force Accident/Incident Report, 57-1442, 1965.

  329. Hirschman, “Autopilot Suspected.”

  330. Excerpt from the tape of Airplane 632 flown by a Boeing crew and KC-135 #57-1442 (Raggy 42) on January 12, 1965, Air Force Safety Center, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.

  331. Hirschman, “Autopilot Suspected.”

  332. Ibid.

  333. Ibid.

  334. Ibid.

  CHAPTER 14

  335. National Transportation Safety Board, Aircraft Accident Report of United Airlines Flight 585, NTSB Libraries, http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2001/AAR0101.pdf (accessed November 12, 2011), 4 and Appendix D (air/ground communications).

  336. Ibid.

  337. Ibid.

  338. NTSB, “Uncontrolled Collision with Terrain for Undetermined Reasons, United Airlines Flight 585, Boeing 737-291, N999UA, 4 Miles South of Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 3, 1991,” Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-92/06, Washington, D.C., 1992.

  339. NTSB, “Uncontrolled Collision with Terrain, United Airlines Flight 427, Boeing 737-300, N513AU near Aliquippa, Pennsylvania September 8, 1994,” Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-99/01, Washington, D.C., 1994, 6.

  340. Bill Adair, The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash Investigation (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), 44.

  341. NTSB, Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-99/01, 52.

  342. Ibid.

  343. Ibid.

  344. Ibid.

  345. Adair, Mystery of Flight 427, 162–63.

  346. NTSB, Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-99/01, 77.

  347. NTSB, Aircraft Accident Report of United Airlines Flight 585, NTSB Libraries, http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2001/AAR0101.pdf (accessed November 12, 2011), 112.

  348. NTSB, Aircraft Accident Report NTSB/AAR-99/01, 295.

  349. Ibid., 295.

  350. See Adair’s substantive investigation, Mystery of Flight 427, for more information on unscheduled rudder deflection and the three flights mentioned.

  351. NTSB, Aircraft Accident Report of United Airlines Flight 585.

  352. Roe, “Report Reveals.”

  353. USAF, Aircraft Accident Report, KC-135 #57-1442 (Raggy 42), 1965.

  354. Ibid.

  355. Roe, “Report Reveals.”

  356. Ibid.

  357. David McCullough, The Course of Human Events, CD, 2005, read by the author (New York: Simon and Schuster Audio, 2005).

  358. Also see R. Key Dismukes, Benjamin A. Berman, Loukia D. Loukopoulos, The Limits of Expertise: Rethinking Pilot Error and the Causes of Airline Accidents (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), 231, 294. The authors describe the crash of American Flight 1340 on February 9, 1998, at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, in which the autopilot malfunctioned and “drove the aircraft toward the ground near decision height.” The authors stated, “We suggest that these situations severely challenge human capabilities and that it is unrealistic to expect reliable performance, even from the best of pilots.” David Gero, Aviation Disasters: The World’s Major Civil Airliner Crashes Since 1950, 4th ed. (London: Haynes Publishing, 2006), 47–48. Gero describes how on March 1, 1962, a Boeing 707-123B (N7506A) American Airlines Flight 1 leaving New York International Airport to Los Angeles experienced “unexpected rudder deflection to the left, producing yaw, side-slip and roll that in turn led to a loss of control.” Frayed wires on the rudder control system caused a “‘hard-over’ signal by the yaw damper, a mechanism designed
to sense the onset of a lateral control abnormality and automatically adjust the rudder, and of which the servo is a component.”

  CHAPTER 15

  359. Wichita City Manager Russell E. McClure to Congressman Garner E. Shriver, May 4, 1966, MS7701, Box 9, Garner Shriver Papers, Wichita State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives.

  360. Carpenter and Wesley, “Community Response,” 31.

  361. Robert C. Casad, “A Commentary on the Kansas Wrongful Death Act,” 13 U. Kan. L. Rev. 515 (1964-–1965), 523, http://hdl.handle.net/1808/861 (accessed June 12, 2011).

  362. Colonel Dwight W. Covell to Congressman Garner E. Shriver, May 8, 1967, Shriver Papers.

  363. Guide to Congressional Papers of Kansas Congressman Garner E. Shriver, Special Collections, Ablah Library, Wichita State University, http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/ms/77-01/77-1-a.pdf (accessed January 22, 2013).

  364. Garner E. Shriver to Frank T. Priest, August 10, 1965, Shriver Papers.

  365. H.R. Report No. 104, 89th Cong.,1st sess., February 24, 1965. Sec.3; H.R. 8958-Public Law 87-393 for Midwest City crash; H.R. 11644, Public Law 86-476 for Little Rock crash, Shriver Papers.

  366. “Remove Limit 1st Session on Claims McConnell Air Crash,” Public Law 89-65, 89th Cong., 1st sess., 1965. Shriver Papers.

  367. Ibid., sec 3.

  368. Cotter, Jet Tanker Crash, 137, italics in original.

  369. Dale W. Bruce to Congressman Garner E. Shriver, April 26, 1967, Shriver Papers.

  370. Cornelius P. Cotter to Lester Brown, March 24, 1967, Shriver Papers.

  371. Dolores Quinlisk, “KC-135 Crash Hardships Linger,” Wichita Eagle, August 5, 1965.

  372. Wichita Eagle, “Damage Suit Action in KC-135 Crash Halts for Data on Similar Accidents,” March 29, 1967.

  373. Clarence William Walker, interview, March 1969, Shriver Papers.

  374. Report of the Fair-Mark Committee, 1967, 1, Shriver Papers.

  375. Dale W. Bruce to Congressman Garner E. Shriver, April 21, 1967, Shriver Papers.

  376. “Remove Limit 1st Session on Claims McConnell Air Crash.”

  CHAPTER 16

  377. Report of the Fair-Mark Committee, 1967, 12, Shriver Papers.

  378. Marvin Barnes, “KC-135 Crash Payments Now Total $386,377,” Wichita Beacon, November 25, 1967.