Evening star., 1947-06-26

ability doesn't ny into mountains pun0iy OF
accidentally. After all, he had flown those
ridges for 26 years without serious accident
He had had forced landings among those ridges
in all types of weather, both day and night
These are all positive factors that preclude
his making such foolish mistake.
However let's look at the various state
ments Of the so-called experts. They won't
come out yet and say that 1t is pilot error
but they imply such. They're befuddling the
public as usual with a lot OF wild and unbe-
lievable statements. One OF the experts
president of an airline-after seeing the
pieces of the Captaliner on water-logged
morning, says It couldn't have been structural
failure. Just how does he know? In the
Eastern Airlines accident at Port Deposit they
couldn't determine positively that there was
structural failure. The only evidence lead
ing to that belief is the statement of eyewit-
nesses. Suppose there had been no wit
nesses? Don't answer 1T, will Pilot error!
Yet the Port Deposit plane is in bigger pieces
than the Capitaliner How can this airline
president say there was no evidence of struc-
tural failure?
There was positive evidence Of fire either
before or after the crash. Yet they ignore
fire as a possibility. Would this be the first
airline plane to catch fire?
Why does Congress hesitate to install an in
dependent air safety board? Testimony on
record in Congress testi1es to its former ef-
fectiyeness. The scheduled airlines operated
for period of II months and five days with
out single fatality, record never before or
since equaled. Could 1t be that the CAA Is
political reward bureau? We can't transfer
any of its functions without doing away with
a few patronage jobs Naturally. we realize
that some airlines do not like the idea. 1t
will cost them a lot of money to improve
existing types. They wouldn't and didn't
like the idea of being dictated to and ruled
by some one who thought of the public safety
first ,.t
Fire is only one possibility not previously
mentioned by the experts They could have
lost all four engines to carburetor ice. An
other expert mentions that the pilot switched
beamss causing him to crash. But Capt.
Stark would not let down any lower on the
northwest leg OF the Arcola radio range than
he would have on the northwest leg Of the
Washington range ..'
Another statement, concerning the ground
speed of the DC4 as only 124 miles per hour
on a descent, is absurd. No other planes
flying that route that night at that time ex-
perienced any winds of such sufficient We
However. If he did have to slow up to $50
miles per hour in such let-down, he would
pull very little power = consequently. two
things could have happened. In the first
place, his carburetors could have iced very
quickly and very heavily and when he did
attempt to level out at $500 feet. he did not
have sufficient time for his carburetor
heaters alone to get rid of the ice. Secondly,
II the turbulence were such. 1t could possibly
have dropped him right into that. ridge. Air
planes have lost thousands of feet In seconds
In severe storms. Aren't these enough posi-
bilities to preclude the immediate implication
that pilot error Is the cause?
Doesn't any one think clearly these days7
Didn't the hasty certifcation and almost i'm
mediate grounding pending sweeping i'm
provements of the Constellation make the pub
lie realize that the CAA is either incompetent
or has been pressured against the interests
of the travelling public? Now, don't they
realize that the CAA the airline companies
and the aircraft companies would much
rather blame a crash on dead pilot than
live revenue producing airplane? If man
after flying 26 years is deemed inconpe-
tentr-who is, or will be competent?
LOUIS J. WIMSATT.