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[[stamp]] Flushing N.Y. Feb 1 4 AM 1952 Rec'd [[/stamp]]

Pilots' Wives Demand New U.S. Safety Board
By: Steve Webber

In the wake of the two Elizabeth, N.J., air disasters, a group of worried but determined women-- wives of airline pilots-- begun circulating a petition to Congress yesterday demanding increased safety regulations.

 
Prefering to remain anonymous a spokesman for the women said, "We are not seeking publicity for ourselves; what we want is more action on the part of the government to protect our husbands."
Specifically, they are asking that the Air Safety Board which was dissolved in 1940, be revived pointing out that it had an exemplary safety record during the few years of its existence. In the 18 months following the dissolution of the ASB, airlines were plagued by a series of disastrous crashes.
The Air Safety Board, which was created under the Civil Aeronautics Authority Act of 1938, was a stern policeman over commercial aviation and was required by law to have as one of its three members an airline pilot with at least 3,000 hours of airline flying time.
The women emphasized that the board, if reinstituted, would have the power to investigate such charges as planes being loaded in excess of the manufacturer's original specifications, the power to recommend new or changed safety rules and also the power to enforce them.

No Confidence in CAB
Circulating the petition will be at least a two-week job, the group said, since there are more than 7,000 of the flyer's wives in the U.S., 1,200 of whom are located on L.I. The group circulating the petition is composed of the pilots' wives living in Nassau and Queens.
The women declared they have lost confidence in the presently-constituted body, the Civil Aeronautics Board, which "decides for itself whether it has done a good job in enforcement."
"Often, final reports made on air disasters reveal that corrective action is being taken," one of the wives complained.
They will not go along with the claims made that "pilot errors" are a major source of the crashes, and they point out that "corrective action usually is concerned with navigational aids, radio ranges, and designs, which is an admission in itself that pilot error could not be blamed positively."