Viewing page 14 of 200

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-13-

In round figures, since the independent Air Safety Board was abolished by the Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 4 on June 30, 1940, there have been 1016 casualties to passengers and crew on our air line network, representing 880 people who have been killed and 136 injured. It is a human trait to forget quickly, but the record cannot be so easily erased. What can be done to remedy the situation? Above all, the independent Air Safety Board provided for in the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and abolished on June 30, 1940, by the Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 4 must be re-established. It was the watch-dog of air safety. Without re-establishment of the independent Air Safety Board, the whole air safety picture is dismal, confused, and hopeless. We will go on, that is a certainty, but how? Stumbling, fumbling, and crashing, wondering what it is all about; and each time a crash occurs, the mud-slinging investigations revive and renew false hopes that there will not be a recurrence.

The opinions of the air line pilots on the necessity of an independent Air Safety Board are well known and have been spread across many records of our government. The last statement made by the air line pilots on this subject was made before the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee investigating air line accidents and air safety on January 29, 30, 31, 1947, and the Senate Commerce Committee investigating air line accidents and air safety on February 3 and 4, 1947, during the first session of the 80th Congress. THIS AIR SAFETY STATEMENT BY THE AIR LINE PILOTS IS ATTACHED, MARKED ENCLOSURE NO. 4. It is urged most earnestly that the members of the President's Air Policy Commission read and study carefully what is contained therein, including in particular the recommendations of the air line pilots for the re-establishment of the independent Air Safety Board. The men in our air line cockpits are certain that it is vital to the future and best interest of our country's air line transportation and everything that it means to the progress of our world commerce.

It is well known in railroad transportation that safety devices and effective means of achieving safety on the railroads were not welcomed by the companies. In most instances, the means of greater railroad safety was forced on the companies. Don't ask us why. We can't answer that one. The fact remains that the railroad workers have been the greatest sponsors of safety on the rails, and history is repeating itself in air line transportation.

The air line pilots repeat that the record will reveal to the President's Commission that the steady chain of air line accidents is broken only by miracles -- miracles of escape. The four latest miracles are: (1) The landing of the Pan American DC-4 at Floyd Bennett Field on September 21, when the skill of the pilots saved 41 lives. (2) One occurring in Texas on October 8 when an American Airlines airplane when into inverted flight with 53 people aboard. Irrespective of what has been said in the press, this incident could have been averted had the plane been equipped with a properly designed and constructed

Transcription Notes:
.