Evening star., 1937-02-07
A|RMEN ADJOURN
AFTER SHARP T|[TS
Safety Conference Urges
Charges Be Filed in
Negligence Cases.
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.


Leaving behind the outlines OF .
program which is to be the basis for
Federal and private aviation develop
ment along what are expected to be
new lines of safety and efficiency.
more than 200 national aviation
leaders adjourned last night after q
1O-hour session marked several times
by sharp controversies.
The program ranges from recon-
mended appropriations OF $4,000, 900
for modernization and extension OF
airways aids and s2,000,o00 additional
for the Weather Bureau to research
into such problems as substratosphere
flying. blind landing and the catapult-
ing of giant airliners into the air.
The conference, with many air
line pilots themselves concurring,
called on the Commerce Department
to begin filing charges against pilots
who fail to heed the new airways
traffic control rules. A Federal traffic
control station will be put into oper-
alton this week at Washington Air
port, the conference was told.
Regulations to Be Tightened.
The airlines we're warned by Bureau
of Air Commerce officials there is to
be a general tightening of Federal
regulation of air transportation, and
that in the near future they may ex-
pect Federal orders requiring them to
install such new safety devices as
radio compasses or direction finders
and ground equipment which will
make possible the positive location Of
airliners whose pilots may have lost
their way.
The conference approved the crea-
ton in the Bureau of Air Commerce
Of a new section to be known as the
safety research and development Sec
ton and was promised that steps
will be taken to set up such Sec
ton.
A committee was created to go to
the Capitol tomorrow, when hearings
will begin on the Commerce Depart
ment appropriation bill, to insist on
the new $4,000 900 program for air
of Weather Bureau appropriations
from s1,400,000 to S3,400.000, TO give
additional weather service.
Affidavits Made Public.
After spirited fight between air
line operators and David L. Behncke,
president of the Airline Pilots Asso-
citation, over Behncke's charge that
pilots are pushed into flying in dam
gerous weather against their better
judgment, airline heads and several
members of Congress forced the
Bureau of Air Commerce to make
public copies of Behncke's affidavits.
One Of these. from Roy H. Warner.
former Northwest Airlines pilot,
charged the airline with having Or
dered Pilot Joe P. Livermore and Co.
pilot A. A. Haid to their deaths in
8 crash December 18 near Elk River.
Idaho The other. from Livermore' S
wife. charged that five days before
the fatal flight Lvermore had been
ordered to go on through storm con-
ditions so bad that panic
passengers aboard the plane refused
to stay aboard She quoted an alleged
order from an airline official to her
husband to bring that section
through or I will accept your resig-
nation"
Vehement denials were made yes
terday by airline officials and pilots
that such conditions are general.
Pilot after pilot rose to deny that
they had been pushed into flights
under conditions they believed dan
gerous.
Col. Edgar S. Gorrell, president of
the Air Transport Association, aSsalled
q statement made to the conference
by Assistant Secretary of Commerce
j. Monroe johnson that the fact pilots
suffer pay losses and airline operators
lose airmail revenues for canceling
flights in bad weather creates an urge
to complete flights which has a bear
ing on safety"
"A bad airline crash costs an airline
In the millions of dollars in damage
claims, property loss and lost rev.
enues," Gorrell said. 1T is ridiculous
to think for a minute that an airline
deliberately risks a crash for the sake
of a few dollars in mail revenue or that
pilot is going to risk the lives of his
passengers and himself for the sake
of pay, especially since he can make
up his lost time later when the weather
improves"
Says Funds SoreIy Needed.
johnson also was attacked by Cor
rell for stating that the Bureau Of
Air Commerce docs not want and
cannot use at this time $4,000, ,000."
johnson said that if smaller sums
were spent wisely I'VE would get the
s1400o,0o0 when it is needed"
Gorrell cited a Bureau of Air Com
merce list Of proposed construction
items, all'approved and demanded by
the aviation industry as vitally neces-
sary, which would exhaust the $l4,-
100000 fund, he said.
The argument over whether pres
sure" had been exerted on pilots came
after the bureau had reported that
pilots errors were primary causes"
of four recent crashes which cost rs
lives, and of 16 accidents within the
past two years.
Capt. Edward " Rickenbacker, gen.
eral manager of Eastern Air Lines,
denying bureau findings that Pilot
Dick Merrill, transatlantic flyer, was
guilty of errors which resulted in a
non-fatal crash near Milford, Pa, De-
cember 49, insisted the fault lay with
Federal airways beacons which broad
cast supposedly fixed courses which
swung so badly that they are known
to his pilots as revolving beacons."
Rickenbacker insisted on creation Of
an impartial board Of review to arbi-
trate such disputes between airlines
and the Federal Accident Board. The
suggestion was accepted by Director
Of Air Commerce Vidal.
Says Propaganda Must End.
Behncke was verbally castigated by
Gorrell, Rickenbacker and c. r. Smith,
n~ae;dav,t nf Ayoorican AirljneS Rem.