Evening star., 1943-08-22
Army Air Forces Fatal Accident Rate Reduced
Despite Accelerated War Training Program
Hot Pilots Placed
Under Restrictions
To Promote Safety
By NELSON M. SHEPARD

~ more OIUCefS ana enllSIed men
are added to the mounting toll of
accidental deaths in the Air Forces.
A couple of days later headlines
again blazen: Three cadets die in
crash of three planes in two hours"
Or anxious parents of flyers risking
life and limb in training read dis
concerting report that faulty parts
and faulty inspection" caused the
deaths of 10 men in a glider disaster
resulting in Army orders to ground
some 100 planes of the same type in
the st. Louis area.
Little wonder, then, that many
bewildered Americans on the home
front who gain such impressions of
the risk of air training and routine
flights find it difficult to reconcile
reports of this character with Oft
repeated statements of Gen. Henry
H, Arnold and other high ranking
aviation officials that the Army Air
Forces have the lowest accident rate
in the world
Only 5 Per Cent Hurt.
Yet that statement, which has
gone unchallenged is beyond ques-
tioning an honest and true summa-
ton of the known facts Despite
the hurried time element of war in
the midst of an unprecedented ex-
pansion of our Army Air Forces,
Gen. Arnold, their commanding
general, points to the undisputable
fact that 95 out of every 100 pilots
come through their arduous training
period without injury of any kind.
not even a sprained ankle or
barked shin. Accounting for all other
crew members, more than 95 out of
every 100 men in the Air Forces
pass safely through that critical
| period.
1t was that record, perhaps un-
equaled by any air force of the war;
ring nations, that recently led the
National Safety Council to present
to Gen. Arnold, on behalf of the
Army Air Forces, its special war
time award for Distinguished Serv-
ice to Safety.
In the face of this reinsurance,
nevertheless, it is not improbable
! that tomorrow's headlines will her
! aid another air disaster of some
kind on the home front, again rails
ing a serious doubt in the public
mind.
Casualties from aircraft accidents
are the inevitable toll of war and
preparations for war. The only
way to stop all flying accidents, the
Army says reasonably enough, is to
stop all flying Reports of acci-
dents-approximately 80 per cent of
which are traced to human errors
will continue increasingly as we
put more and more spirited youths
into training and as individual types
Of fighting craft become hotter"
and speedier.
All Accidents Published.
Unlike Great Britain or the Axis
powers, the United States makes no
attempt to suppress the news of
| fatal air accident. The fact that it
occurred is not restricted. Re-
sponsible officials say there is not
a word of truth in ugly whispers
heard that many training fatalities
are kept under cover. On the con-
trary, recent orders have been issued
requiring the public announcement
of air fatalities as soon as the next
of kin are notified. Believing the
American public can take bad news
along with the good, the orders are
for complete cooperation with the
press in reporting deaths from air
| accidents.
Yet the Army, on the other hand,
is restricted and handicapped in
keeping the public fully and under
standingly informed about its safety
record by the mere fact that we are
engaged in war against dangerous,
cunning and intelligent enemies. 1t
is circumscribed in making public
a comulete overall picture of how
the new Flight Control Command
is succeeding effectively in reducing
the accident rate
To give all the pertinent facts and
figures which are needed to round
out this picture would divulge what
enemy agents want to know in or
der to pass on to Hitler and Hiro-
hito an accurate estimate of our
plane and pilot strength, of our
equipment and combat training
methods.
| Within subscribed limits, however,
/ the facts that have contributed to
a reduction of fatal accidents in
/ the Army Air Forces to the sigpifi-
/ cantly low level of 09 per 1000 fly
ing hours for the first eight months
of the 1943 fiscal year, may be told.
Rate Amazingly Low.
That amazingly low rate, one in
which the Nation may take equal
pride with the Army Air Forces,
cuts by tenth of one per cent the
fatal accident rate for he first nine
months of 1912
On is face it might appear small
return for the ceaseless campaign
that is maintaining world safety
record in flying. But when under
stood in relation to the enormous
wartime increase of planes in the
air, the thousands of pilots and the
number of hours and miles flown, it
assumes startling significance.
| 1UlliE Va Vic lCICdSCu Oll
flying within the continental United
States alone give color and convic-
ton to an overall glimpse of the
picture.
During the first nine months of
1912, an official report states. the
Army Air Forces few almost 1,500.-
100000 miles in this country, the
! enlIiya lent of seven and a half trims
to the sun or almost $1,000 trips
around the world. Or take it an
other way 1t amounts to about 1875
per cent more miles than were f1owrf
by the Army during the entire 10
year peace period from 1930-1939,
inclusive.
Since September. 1912, the number
of miles flown by Army planes
within the United States has as
s1In1ed astronomical ,roportiope