Viewing page 28 of 76

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

To ALL Active ALPA Members  -12-  January 26, 1948

"The Civil Aeronautics Board has done commendable work in connection with safety. We recommend the transfer of these safety functions from it principally because we believe that it should be as free as possible for the performance of its economic functions.

"We are aware of the difficulties that surrounded the earlier Safety Board, and realize that our proposal has a striking similarity to it. We believe, however, that the logic of the situation compels the establishment of such a Board. The Function of accident investigation and analysis should not, we believe, be in the Department of Civil Aviation, for such an arrangement would not provide the desired independence of the investigators. We believe that it should be in a Board with an independence analogous to that of the Civil Aeronautics Board. But since we believe that the Civil Aeronautics Board should not have this function for the reasons we have just given there is no alternative other than to create a new body."

This represents the greatest air safety victory for the Air Line Pilots Association since successfully securing the enactment of the law that established the first independent Air Safety Board on August 22, 1938.

ALPA's 1947 air safety efforts are beginning to show results. It is hoped that 1948 will see less fire crashes and a lesser number of crashes due to mechanical and structural reasons. Without attempting to be boastful or a braggadocio in any sense, without ALPA's air safety efforts, the air line equipment picture would today be black-edged indeed.

The latest development is that the Douglas Aircraft Company, early in January 1948, invited the Air Line Pilots Association to advise actively with them right from the beginning in the engineering and building of the new DC-9 to replace the DC-3. ALPA Headquarters' standing Engineering and Airworthiness Advisory Committee, aided by Bart Cox and one pilot from each air line flying into Los Angeles, together with regional Vice President L. M. Williams, started this work at the Douglas plant in California on January 12. All chairmen have been written to send Headquarters' Engineering and Air Safety Department the suggestions and recommendations of their councils on the engineering and safety features and cockpit arrangements of the newly planned Douglas DC-9, to assist our special Douglas DC-9 Pilots' Engineering Committee in its very important work. Headquarters is of the opinion that an airplane of this weigh and class will be a boon to the air line business, and it is our opinion that the larger and faster equipment is falling far short of expectations, except for long-haul purposes. ALPA pointed this out years ago, but as usual, the wiseacres didn't listen.

Much has been accomplished. There is much left to do. Stop and reflect what the air safety picture would look like without ALPA. Surely, our investment in air safety is a good investment. It all adds up to greater safety in air travel. A high percentage of every dollar that goes into ALPA flows back to the pilots in the form of improved safety in their working conditions.

4. DISREPUTABLE AND UNSCRUPULOUS PUBLICISTS POSING AS A LEGITIMATE PART OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS ENCOURAGED AND SUPPORTED BY THE AIR LINES AND PAID PRESS AGENTS.

During 1947, the air line pilots were made the recipients of a great amount of publicity. Write-ups and magazine articles were almost continuously on somebody's front page. Our Publicity