Evening star., 1941-02-08
Air Corps May Issue
Safety Records 10
Reassure Public
Rutio Of Fatalities TO
Hours Flown Actually
Declining, Officers Say
b the Associated Press.

b the Associated Press.
The deaths of at least 81 Army
flyers in airplane accidents in less
than two months has prompted the
Air Corps to undertake an intensive
study of safety records and crash
prevention measures.
Issuance of a detailed statement
of these records, which heretofore
have been held secret was reported
today to be under consideration BY
corps officials as means of sup
porting their contention that al
though the number of accidents has
increased with expansion of the Air
Corps the ratio of fatalities to hours
flown actually has tended down.
ward.
A dozen naval flyers also have
been killed since mid-December, but
Navy Department officials said the
rate of accidents was not abnormal.
Average Placed at %.
In two months more Army flyers
have met death than for entire
recent l2-month periods. For the
period l937-1939. the average number
of fatalities annually from student
and service training" which officials
said included all operations, was ap-
proximately %.
The Air Corps now is several times
larger than it was during that pc
riod, however At present il includes
more than 5000 officers, 1000 flying
cadets and $4,000 enlisted men.
Aside from the factors Of size,
some airmen say they are convinced
that accidents sometimes tend to oc-
cur in cycles Three years ago the
Navy lost more than 30 flyers with
in a few weeks, mostly during ma
neuvers of the feet in the Pacific
under simulated wartime conditions
Increase in Hours Flown.
Congress was told then neverthe-
| less that the number of hours flown
per accident had increased from 349
in 1922 to an estimated 876 in 1899
This trend has continued since then
it was said at the Navy, despite the
added demands on officers and mer
from the arms expansion program
The present series of fatal acci-
| dents which has beset the Army
1 and Navy may be said to have
! started with the loss of six men In
the crash of a bomber in Southern
California on December 18.
/ Fatalities since the first of the
/ year have included:
January 2, Army, men, Laredo
Tex; Navy. l, near Edinburgh, Tex
January 4, Navy, II, near San Diego
Calf January s, Army, collision
near Honolulu l killed; Army, /
Barksdale Field. La January Is
Army bomber, 7. near Morton, Wash
( February 4. Army, New York City, l
/ February 6, Army, 8, Lovelock, New
Army, !. in collision, Mitchell Field
Long Island.
Omits Non-Fatal Accidents.
Unofficial and incomplete. this hs'
omits entirely other accidents ir
which there were no fatalities Al
mlshaps are officially recorded anc
investigated, but both the Army anc
Navy have followed the policy o
declining to publish compilations.
The proposed publication of Al
Corps accident rates as public re
assurance would represent a depar
ture from that policy.
Detailed figures were furnished
however, at Randolph Field. Tex, tn
Army's West Point of the Air,
where officers said there had been n
increase in the ratio of accident
since the training of pilots was &C
celerated and none was anticipate
because of stringent safety meas
ures.
In eight years ending in 1889,
was said. 10 cadets met death out O
4.798 trained. and in the year endin
last July, were killed out of ap
prOXimatelv 1000.