The Washington times., 1938-05-26
Sec. Roper
Passes Buck
TOMulligGn

OM uCCCYUu
Director Denis Mulligan Of the
Bureau OF Air Commerce expressed
his deep and grave concern today
over the mounting air accident
toll and assured the public the
bureau would press every line of
inquiry until "the inherent cause
OF the crashes was unearthed.
The Air Commerce head ex-
pected to go to Cleveland to take
personal charge of the Govern
ments investigation Of Tuesday
nights United Air Lines crash
which took 10 lives.
PUBLIC WANTS MORE"
Mulligan overruled his superior.
Commerce Secretary Daniel c.
Roper, at Roper's press conference
yesterday and spoke frankly and
without evasion Of Americas re-
curing air tragedies.
"Tell the public we are cons
tantly studying them," Roper
had said suavely when the Ques-
tion arose of reassuring public
shocked anew by last nights
fatalities.
CITES RESEARCH WORK
"The public wants something
more" struck in the tall, serious.
faced Mulligan, West Point gradu-
ate and army aviator, who has
worked his way up to the top Of
the much-criticized Air Commerce
Bureau.
While Roper sat silent, Mulligan
emphasized the something more"
he had in mind. The Bureau, he
said, was doing a great deal OF
research into instrument flying,
entirely independent of his airline
companies. It has launched en-
tirely new studies Of the pilot
the human factor on which acci.
dents so often are blamed.
PASSES BUCK
At the start Of yesterdays con
ference Secretary Roper began to
ladle out the usual soft soap
Asked why, in his opinion. thu
tragic accidents persisted on the
nations air lines, he replied:
why are there so many
tragedies in life?"
Asked if he put plane crashes
In the category of the inescapable
sorrows Of life, the Secretary re
piled, "Well, it's one Of them"
The Secretary tn en- swiftly
passed the buck to "the excellent
and experienced" Captain Multi.
gan, new director Of the Air Com
merce Bureau. The new director
plunged in, without reticence or
evasion.
MULLIGAN'S VERSION
"Iast nights United Air Lines
trip nine, leaving Newark at
7::30, due at Cleveland 1925,
crashed" he began. at was on
time and on course, according to
the records found, and fell about
eight miles eastward Of the air
port. 1t was probably not flying
on instruments because the
night was clear.
I'VE have reports the plane
was observed on fire in the air.
This is very significant, if estab-
lished, because it indicates
something in the. nature Of a
power plant difficulty. The con-
troll operator said he observed
the ship coming in when she
was some distance out and she
had her landing lights on. This
was just before 1919 o'clock
when the ship disappeared.
MY own observations-and
have participated in inveStiga-
tionS Of 10 previous accidents
are that the tendency of wit
nesseS is to say that they heard
the motors missing and that the
plane crashed In flames. We
shall know more later about this
particular accident.
NOT INEVITABLE
Mulligan declared he did moi
consider such accidents as last
nights inevitable, by any means
and stressed the great mileage
flown by the airlines with com
parative safety.
While not attempting to mini
mize present accidents, he de
clared the bureau was investigat
ing more thoroughly than in tn,
past, having been given greater
power by law to hold hearings.
OLDEST AIR PASSENGER
PREsQUE ISLE, Me-, May q
u.NS)-The oldest passenger ye
to ride on the Boston and Main
airways into ArooStock County, /
the llniuue claim of Mrs. MartiI