The Washington times., 1938-05-20
Another Plane Down

AlLUC1lCl 1d1IC DOWu
WE SEE by the business that transcontnental
w air travel picked up sharply in the first two weeks
Of May and that airline officials duly optimistic
Glad to hear any good business news; but just the
same about every time get the mind made up to take
plane trip read of another airliner cracking up in
the Sierra or Rocky Mountains
The latest crash did not kill crowd of paying pas
sengers on regular business flight. But it
zng as many the others in point of and crcum
stances.
new Lockheed Vega arner valued at $4,000, is
taken out of Burbank Cal. (airport for Los Angeles,
by highly regarded test pilot. He is to fly it to Las
Vegas New. where his copilot is to take it over and fly
1t to St. Paul for delivery to Northwest Arnes On
board are five other Lockheed employees and two small
children
The pilot is told at Burbank that cloud banks in the
San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles are
1000 feet thick He is reported to have said he would
fly contact Tin sight of land) the mountains then
ride the radio beam into Las Vegas-perhaps to give
clear track to commercial transport leaving Burbank
four minutes ahead of him.
The plane is found forty hours later horribly smashed
with all nine occupants killed. mountainsde thirty
miles out of Burbank The commercial transport flew
above the cloud banks and had no trouble.
What happened?
It is known fact that commercial pilots required
to know how to fly blind instruments alone that con-
tact flying is out of date with most
QueStIO"S' of them. It is also generally believed
NO Answers that the Sperry gyroscope plane pilot,
like "Iron Mike" on steamships will hold plane to
set course without human help The gyroscope pilot is
believed to be in pretty general use on the airines
The talest peak in California is 14,495 feet high
(Mt Whitney,, and this is the talest peak between
Alaska and Mexico. Why aren't pilots on the western
mountain routes required without ifs or butts, to main
tain sufficient altitude those mountains to clear
anv land they can possibly encounter? Say 5000
bn1 I foot oh fh9n
ney Or if there is such rule why is it not enforced?
It is known that high altitude affects some peoples
iudgment If attitudes necessary for safety on western
mountain flights are great as to affect pnot Juog
nnent it would to be simple precaution to equip
planes with oxygen apparatus for the pilot to use when
he felt giddy.
The above remarks are a vague and confused col
lection of questions, hints surmises. For that, we
think the Department of Commerce of the Federal
Government is chiefly to blame.
Lei tHe FnO"C M Other air crashes have been
OH OO"e oeC'e'" solemnly probed by this depart
ment which has jurisdiction over civil aviation, just
as this crash will be probed The Investigations dragged
on and on in the end the findings were kept secret
We expect that will be the history Of this investigation
too The general practice is to blame the pilot, who
is not alive to testify, just the engineer was Gus
tomary blamed when the railroads in their youth
lost trains and smashed up burned up passengers.
We believe the Department of Commerce is bindly,
mistakenly and subbornly refusing to play fair with
the general public. 1t should conduct its crackup in
vestigatons in the open and should release its find
ings in full
The time has come, believe, to go farther
than that We think it is time to work out some sort
of punitive measures to be inflicted airnes in
of crackups that can be reasonably blamed the
management.
The Government subsidies the arnes with mail
contracts furnishes the radio beacons and route light
ing builds arports with WPA labor and in other
encourages aviation. When it comes to protecting
the air-traveling public think the Government is
falling down on the job.
GTron he Daily EswH3