Evening star., 1936-04-30
AIR UNIT SHAKE-UP
PLANNED BY CLARK
Senator Would Establish
Impartial Board to Probe
Accidents.

Declaring the Bureau OF AIT CON-
merce needs house cleaning, !"
Senator Clark. Democrat, of Missouri
announced today he is planning legis-
lative action to change the units
set-up.
He has in mind specifically a new
bill recommended yesterday by Eugene
l.. Vidal, director of air commerce, in
testimony before the Senate Aircraft
Accident Investigating Committee, of
which he is a member, to establish an
impartial accident board to investigate
aircraft accidents.
Il expect to introduce a bill estab-
fishing an accident board to be COM
posed probably of representatives of
the Justice, War and Navy Depart
ments," Senator Clark said.
Wearied by two days of highly
technical discussion of Federal airways
aids, members of the subcommittee
stood in recess today. Tomorrow
morning the hearings will be resumed,
with Amelia Earhart Putnam as the
chief witness. She will appear before
the subcommittee at 1870 o'clock in
the big caucus room of the Senate
Office Building to discuss aviation
needs in general.
To Be Asked About U. S. Aids.
She will be asked especially to de-
scribe her experience with the Federal
aids to air navigation. Miss Earhart
for a time was a sl-a-year employe
of the Bureau of Air Commerce ard
made a special study of the aids on
several of her flights.
Before the committee recessed yes
terday it heard from Vidal, that he
has known for the last year and halt
that the airwayS system was in many
localities obsolete and inadequate
He denied, however, as had been
charged by earlier witnesses, that the
failure of Federal aids to air naviga.
ton has in any instance been con-
tributing factor to fatal accident.
Vidal admitted that he does not be.
lieve his organization is 100 per cent
efficient and that it even now lacks
the discipline, say, of an airline or
ganlzation." He declared that wher
he took Office there was found some
s2,300000 worth of surplus alrwayi
equipment not even listed or inven-
toried, some of it Lying about, not
even stored" for so long it had be-
come obsolete.
Would Change Probes.
Vidal expressed the hope that the
Senate committee will suggest fol
the future an accident board consist
ing of other than Bureau personnel
Il am quite responsible" he said
"for suggesting the amendment ol
1884 to our air commerce law which
authorizes the Department of Com
merce to openly hear and make public
the probable causes of accidents. II
Is proving embarrassing to have ouI
own personnel in a position where
they must judge our own inspection
and airways services. along with the
airline operations 1t has proved more
difficult because of the early attitude
of certain airline companies that op-
posed two years ago the idea OF pub
licizing the causes of accidents. One
of your investigators stated that the
bureau had been whitewashing itself
in this respect for 10 years. The
publishing of probable causes only
dates back one and half years. and
in no case to date, as has been shown,
have the bureau facilities been d.
rect cause. might also add that our
investigators on each questionable
accident are instructed by me per-
sonally to include in the investigation
any findings any failure of bureau
personnel or facilities. II might be
noted that to date, Of all the acci-
dents invesigaed, T. w. A. is the one
company which has attempted to shift
the blame to the department facili-
ties"
BelittIes Hazards.
'I feel" Vidal said, that we all can
assume that the Federal aids are. to
a certain degree, inadequate, and that
as long as they are inadequate, avia-
tion's progress will be retarded. But
at the same time, we can assume that
they have been improved over the past
two years and are not hazardous for
the present authorized types of
flying"
Rex Martin, assistant director of
cir commerce in charge of air navi-
CATION, was on the stand for nearly
three hours yesterday testifying to de-
tails Of operation and development Of
aids to air navigation. He described
many of the criticisms of the aids as
malicious faultfinding." Most of his
testimony was in direct refutation of
charges made against the bureau and
Its aids.