Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-09
PLANE CRASH NETS
DRIVE TO END ROAD
CROSSING AIRPORT
Five Narrowly Escape as
Ship Lands Short in
Heavy Storm.
HANGAR AND STORED
PLANE ARE DAMAGED
Officials Not Surprised by Acct
dent-Luck Saved Liner
Canoeing Trip.

Three Federal departments today
swung into the fight for immediate
closing of Military road across Wash
ington Airport, and Commerce De-
partment officials are considering the
advisability of closing the local airport
to all air transport operations follow
ing an accident last night in which a
new high-speed airliner crashed into
a hangar after landing short to avoid
the road.
The accident occurred at 1890 pm.
when Pilot John R. Armstrong, land
ing in heavy rain after fight from
New York with five Florida bound
passengers in new Eastern Air Lines
airliner, plowed into sheet metal
hangar. crumpling his wing tip and
stabilizer and damaging a plane
owned by Chester Snow, which was
stored in the hangar.
we are not at all surprised that
this thing happened and we are
greatly relieved that it was not worse"
declared Second Assistant Postmaster
General Harllee Branch, in charge of
airmail 1T is a providential re-
mfnder of the need for immediate &C"
ton to end this ever-growing menace
Dangers Cited in Letters.
The Senate and House Military At
fairs Committees today received letters
from an interdepartmental group COM
posed of Assistant Secretary of War
Woodring. Mr.. Branch and Eugene L.
Vidal, director of air commerce, Com
merce Department. pointing out the
danger at the local airport and asking
that action be taken at once to close
Military road.
The House Military Committee,
which few days ago favorably re-
ported to the House the McSwain bill
providing for immediate closing of the
road, met in executive session today
and was expected to request that the
House expedite consideration of the
measure, now pending on the calendar.
In response to demand from Sec
rotary of Commerce Roper, Washing
ton Airport has put into operation
q 24-hour traffic guard at the Mill
tary road crossing to insure that mo-
florists obey the traffic lights and
sirens which have been in operation
since last year. The guard was put
on a 24-hour basis last night Just
few hours before the accident. 1t
consists of two men, in white UNI
forms and equipped with red flags,
who take stations in the middle of
the ROAD at each control point to flag
down traffic when planes are landing
or taking off.
antee to all pilots that automobiles
will not get into their way when thev
are landing or taking off across the
road" Vidal said today. IF these
guards do not insure safety then the
Department of Commerce probably
will be forced to close the airport to
airline operations. The only thing al
all satisfactory will be to close the
road"
Hazard Held Greatest Now.
Vidal, in a memorandum to the in
terdepartmental group of which he Is
a member, pointed out that "the Mill
tary road crossing at Washington Air
port is far greater hazard to safety
in air travel than at any time prior
to this Summer" He said that the
situation is causing Federal aeronau-
tics officials far more concern now be-
cause of the hot weather, with its
resulting thin air and conveXion cur
rents, which greatly increase the take
off and landing runs of the new high
speed airliners of the type involved in
last nights accident. He pointed out
that arbitrary reduction of the pay
loads of transport airplanes using the
local airport may be ordered with
barring of all transport operations as
q final safety measure
The rainfall, which increased the
difficulty of Pilot Armstrong; landing
here last night, at the same time
probably averted far more serious
accident. The bad weather caused
cancellation of a flight to Washington
by an American Airlines 18-paSsenger
transport from Charlottesville, Va
Had this plane come through, it would
have been parked, as usual, alongside
the hangar into which Armstrong
crashed and would have been directly
In the path Of the landing plane.
Preliminary investigation of the &C
cident, it was said today, indicated
the crash was due entirely to the fact
that Armstrong was forced into a
short landing to miss Military road
and that even so feet more would have
been sufficient to prevent the acct
Slonf