Investigation Summary
California Arrow Airlines was an intrastate subsidiary of Arrow Airways, owned by George E. Batchelor. On the day of the accident, the aircraft completed an uneventful leg from Burbank to Oakland. The final leg to Sacramento departed Oakland at 4:46 PM with six passengers and three crew members. Following takeoff, the flight cruised five miles northwest of the Oakland Airport for seven minutes while awaiting instrument flight clearance. Once cleared to 4,000 feet, the flight proceeded. At 5:08 PM, the crew contacted the Richmond Radio Range Intersection and, in response to a controller query, explicitly confirmed they were at 4,000 feet. This was the last communication. The wreckage was discovered the following morning on a hillside 782 feet above sea level. Investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) revealed the aircraft was approximately 3,200 feet below its assigned altitude at the time of impact. The CAB investigated the possibility of instrument failure but determined that a faulty altimeter could not account for such a large discrepancy without the pilots noticing, ultimately attributing the crash to a failure to fly at the assigned altitude in clouds.
Final Conclusions
The Civil Aeronautics Board determined the aircraft crashed while in controlled flight at an altitude of approximately 800 feet, far below its assigned 4,000 feet. Although the specific cause for the descent remained undetermined, the investigation pointed toward pilot error. The board specifically ruled out the possibility that the altimeter was malfunctioning to the degree required to mislead the crew into believing they were at 4,000 feet.
Video Analysis
No video analysis linked for this case file yet.
Airframe & Maintenance
Systems & Failure Modes
Altimeter
The primary instrument for measuring altitude; investigators ruled out a malfunction that would show 4,000 feet while the plane was at 800 feet.
Interesting Facts
- 01The aircraft was assigned to maintain a cruising altitude of 4,000 feet.
- 02The flight held for seven minutes northwest of Oakland while awaiting instrument flight clearance.
- 03During the last radio contact at 17:08, the crew explicitly confirmed they were at 4,000 feet.
- 04Impact occurred at an altitude of approximately 782 feet.
- 05The owner of the airline, George E. Batchelor, lost his wife and child in the crash.
- 06Weather conditions during the flight were reported as poor with clouds obscuring the terrain.
- 07The Civil Aeronautics Board discounted the possibility of a catastrophic altimeter failure.
Location
APPROXIMATE POSITION · AIRPORT LEVEL · Coordinates are the estimate published in the wikidata coordinate. The ring shows the accuracy the record supports, not the point of impact.