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Conduct of Investigations

"(c) In conducting any hearing or investigation, any member of the Board or any other officer or employee of the Bard or any other person engaged or secured under subsection (c) of section 701 shall have the same powers as the examiners or other employees of the Authority have with respect to hearings or investigations conducted by the Authority.

Aircraft

"(d) Any aircraft, aircraft engine, propeller, or appliance affected by, or involved in, an accident in air commerce shall be preserved in accordance with, and shall not be moved except in accordance with, regulations prescribed by the Board."

MEASURES ARE PENDING IN BOTH THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE TO RE-ESTABLISH THE INDEPENDENT AIR SAFETY BOARD (SENATOR PAT MC CARRAN'S S. 269 IN THE SENATE AND CONGRESSMAN CECIL R. KING'S H.R. 3944 IN THE HOUSE). It should be pointed out at this juncture that the machinery established under these provisions of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 is largely still in existence; but because it is no longer independent, it is next to worthless. The cost to the taxpayers is still there although the effectiveness has been lost. To reactivate the independent Air Safety Board would cost the government very little; in fact, it is so little it isn't even a factor when the worth in actual dollars and cents of real air safety is concerned. Since the abolition of the independent Air Safety Board on June 30, 1940, the air line pilots have continuously urged and sponsored the re-establishment of the Air Safety Board. There was no good reason for its abolition and there is every good reason for its re-establishment. Its demise was due to politics.

Before the independent Air Safety Board was established, there was an endless stream of accidents. The independent Air Safety Board was in effect from August 22, 1938, to June 30, 1940. During the existence of this Board, for a period of 17 months and 5 days, beginning on March 27, 1939, and ending on August 31, 1940, there was not a single air line accident. The opponents of the air line pilots and of air safety are prone to scoff and ridicule but they have never been able to laugh off the record of the independent Air Safety Board or excuse it away. Air safety is so vital to the success of air line transportation it must be watched by an independent agency of government responsible for nothing else but air safety, or air safety will be sold short and always remain a stepchild and become something for the money-changers in the temple to barter with across the counter of air line economy and economics.

The most telling argument for the re-establishment of the independent Air Safety Board is clearly illustrated in the necessity