Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-07


doxically, by recent serious
4 aviation accidents. Among
these accidents was the worst
crash in the history OF the air.
plane In this country. This was a
disaster which in the earlier days
of commercial aeronautics would
have set the entire industry back
many months.
Today, however, an airplane
crash is accepted almost as caSu-
ally as a railroad wreck or seri-
Gus motor bus accident, as one OF
the necessary prices of progress.
One of the greatest consultations
to be drawn by aeronautical peo-
pie from the recent fatal crash
at Newark, N. j., is the fact that
the public, or at least that por-
ton of the public which has taken
to the air, apparently has come to
recognize that a certain proper
ton of accidents must occur to
aircraft, as in any other form of
transportation, but that the pro-
portion is so low they need not be
deferred from flying by reason of
this perfectly understandable
hazard.
Railroad wrecks, no matter how
many lives they may cost, do not
cause any falling off in passenger
travel. No Imotorist is frightened
out of his Sunday drive to the
country just because there is a
heavy weekly toll of lives in high
way accidents. Passengers who
escaped in lifeboats when the
steamer VestriS sank last year
shipped again without noticeable
hesitation on other steamships to
complete their interrupted jour
ney.
Keep Right on Flying.
The same public attitude toward
aviation has become plainly APP
parent. Because some pilot loses
his head in an emergency with re-
suits disastrous to his plane and
his passengers there is no move
rnent to curtail flying as a men
ace to the human race. There is
a perfectly wholesome effort to
find out why the accident oc-
Cured, so that similar occurrences
may be avoided in the future and
passengers keep right on flying.
At Newark Airport, where a pi-
lot, after suffering an apparent
mental furry when one of his
motors cut out, tried to land with
the wind in a prolonged glide and
crashed into a freight train, kill
ing his ID passengers, there was
no public disposition to abandon
aviation as unsafe.
On the following Sunday there
was no falling off in the number
of passengers flown from the same
field, in identical planes and over
the same terrain. Two Sundays
later there were more passengers
taken up from that field than on
any day since the airport has been
open.
No man who has the real inter-
eSts of aviation at heart is at
tempting to minimize the serious
ness of accidents or to fail to take
any steps possible to prevent
them. Despite their efforts, how
ever, there will be accidents in the
future. So will there be railroad
wrecks, ships lost at sea, automo-
bileS driven into trees or bitches
They will not prevent people from
travelling in ever-'ncreaSing num-
berS.
Accidents Always With Us.
The public today knows that for
every airplane which suffers an
accident there are thousands of
flights made successfully and I'M
eventually. There probably never
will be an entirely accident
proof" airplane, just as there
never will be collision proof au-
tomobile or a train which will not
leave the track if a rail breaks or
tears up. But this need be no
cause for any person to stay on
the ground any more than a train
wreck should cause him to remain
a pedestrian all his life. Truly
lamentable things sometimes hap
pen to pedestrians as to any other
moving objects, so even this form
of locornotion is open to objec-
tons If you want to carry the
thing that far.
There seems to be a misconcep-
ton on the part of many people
of this aviation business as a
whole, largely because the art Of
flying has been more or less
wrapped in mystery for so many
years. There is an idea enter
tanned by many that flying is some
sort of a miracle and that things