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To All Active ALPA Members -9- January 26, 1948

The 1947 air line accidents resulted in the deaths of 270 people, including 21 members of ALPA and 1 ALPA Headquarters employee.

Frequently, Headquarters receives letters from members expressing the view that we spend too much time improving our rates of compensation and should spend more time improving safety for the reason that money will do dead men no good. It's a cold, hard way of looking at it, but it's a slant that has plenty of merit. It is common knowledge that approximately half of ALPA efforts are expended checking into and working to improve air safety. At first flash, it would appear that the opposition to improving safety in air travel would be negligible. On the contrary, it's terrific. It's a subject to which is given more lip service, more talking out of both sides of the mouth, and one which is subjected to more hypocrisy than any other phase of the air line business. The dollar comes first and safety second.

It's an easy matter to stir up interest in air safety in most anyone, from the lowest-ranking individual in the business and government, to the highest. But when it comes to doing something effective about it, that's where the trouble starts. In the first place, when it's all said and done, there are many people in high places of influence in our business who are not properly qualified. There is more mismanagement in air line transportation today than is realized or conceded. I am convinced that the driving power to make air lines safer will never come from the air line officials. Because of politics, this force cannot come from the government unless the independent Air Safety Board is re-established by federal legislation. Too many forces are at work against safety on the air lines and with the regulatory agencies. It must therefore come from the air line pilots themselves. They must make their air safety decisions effective through the medium of the exercise of their economic strength. In other words, if the equipment isn't safe, we must not fly it, no matter what anyone says. Let them play politics and indulge in their meaningless merry-go-rounds, but when it finally comes to a matter of taking the planes off the ground, the pilots must say, through the medium of their Association, what's safe and what isn't safe; and they must insist on safe equipment and safe operating practices. The public will back the pilots up on this stand against all the political groups and all the double-talking that has been injected into the air safety picture. Air line management realizes that too many crashes cause the loss of public confidence in air transportation, stymie and impede its growth and drive the business to ruin, but they will do nothing about it, at least, nothing effective.

When we take up quarters in our new Headquarters building and have larger and better facilities, our Engineering and Air Safety Department will have to be considerably enlarged to bring real safety into air line transportation. We are doing a realistic job now, but there is much more developing and organizing to be done in this all-important phase of the Association's work.

What has ALPA done about air safety in 1947? It has two competent engineers busy on the subject continuously, gathering recommendations and sponsoring their adoption, coordinating air safety moves, investigating accidents, making recommendations to manufacturers, and building up engineering and air safety data and files invaluable for future reference purposes.

During 1947, the Engineering and Air Safety Department personnel at Headquarters was supplemented continuously by from one to four regularly scheduled air line pilots. They were: Bart Cox, an AA captain with vast air line experience, a graduate engineer, well-versed on air safety, and ALPA's member on President Truman's