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for creating President Truman's Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety, what is has accomplished since its inception, and the great backlog of safety recommendations it has been unable to process properly because of lack of time and facilities. 

When the Pennsylvania-Central Douglas Skymaster DC-4 crashed into a mountain at Leesburg, Virginia, on June 13, 1947, this terrible mishap which cost the lives of 50 persons, almost at Washington's front door, together with all the other airline accidents that have been happening in chain-like regularity, roused President Truman to action. He appointed the Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety made up of the following members:

[[two columned table]]
| ---- | ---- |
| T.P. Wright | Civil Aeronautics Administrator |
| Milton W. Arnold | Vice President - Perations and Engineering, Air Transport Ass'n |
| Howard B. Cox | American Airlines pilot, representing the Air Line Pilots Ass'n |
| James M. Landis | Chairman, Civil Aeronautics Board |
| Jerome C. Hunsaker | Chairman, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics |

This Presidential air safety inquiry came into being on June 15, 1947. Since that time many hearings have been held and a number of special studies into the causes of and remedies for air line accidents have been made. 

To properly understand the problems of air safety, one must first realize the terrific magnitude of work connected with the air safety part of air line transportation and civil aviation. Since the inception of the President's special air safety board, the air line pilots, through their organization, have put forth 115 air safety recommendations. The President's Board has been able, in the five months of its existence, to process only a comparatively small number of these extremely important safety recommendations. 

Need more to be said? What's going to happen to the air safety problem when the President's Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety is dissolved? Gentlemen of the President's Air Policy Commission, unless provisions are made for the taking over of the work of the President's Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety by an independent Air Safety Board, how can we face what is bound to happen and how can we say that an effective remedy has been created and placed into effect?

Much more could be said on the subject, but I urge you in the quiet of your offices to read carefully the statement prepared by the air line pilots and given to the Senate Commerce Committee on February 4, 1947, and to the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee on January 31, 1947, during the last session of Congress. A COPY IS ATTACHED, MARKED ENCLOSURE NO. 4.