Evening star., 1947-06-16
Air Safety Probers
Named by Truman 10
Start Work Tomorrow
BY the Assoeioied Press

Stung by the series of airline
crashes that took 146 lives in 16
days, President Truman looked
to a panel of aviation experts
today for positive ways to make
plane travel safer.
The Chief Executive picked James
M Lands. chairman of the Civil
/ tAeronautics Board, to head the five
man inquiry board He gave it a
broad mandate to look wherever it
wants to and to come in quickly
with any answers it finds.
Il like the approach" said Mr..
Lands, who called the first meeting
! for tomorrow afternoon in his Office
here. Mr.. Lands is a former dean
of the Harvard University Law
School and a onetime chief of the
Securities and Exchange Commits
sion.
Members of Board.
Working with him will be DR.
Jerome C. Hunsaker, chairman of
the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics: Theodore P.
Wright, civil aeronatutics admins
traitor; Milton w. Arnold, retired
air forces brigadier general and vice
president of the Air Transport Asso-
citation. and H. B. Cox, a veteran ali
line pilot.
Their field of search is as broaC
as aviation itself. 1t will include
the material phases of flying air
craft. engines and electronic aids
as well as flying technique, wealth
er problems and the human factor
the men in the cockpit, the con-
troll tower and the maintenance
shop.
| Congressional committees spent
weeks earlier this year looking into
| the problem of air safety. But those
House and Senate investigation
centered largely around bad weather
landing aids, rejecting the pattern
of a series of bad weather accidents
during the closing months of 1916
Landing Aids Not Involved.
The three crashes of the past 18
days show no such pattern, how
! ever.
Electronic aids like GCA (the
radar talk-doWn method known as
ground control approach, which
held Congress attention, could have
had no effect on any of the last
three mishaps
! Officials of Government aviation
agencies believe that changes in
weather regulations had much to
do with ending the type of accidents
most prevalent late last year.
But lacking any common ground
IN the three recent accidents, the
special board probably will have to
search III a number of directions.
AT first glance its answers appear
certain to involve suggestions about
runway lights and take-of weather
conditions; aircraft inspections. and
attitudes to be maintained under
certain weather conditions.
The board also is likely to devote
considerable attention to the idea
Of installing automatic recording
devices in each plane to keep an ac-
curate log of such f1ightpath factors
as altitude, turns, turbulence and
airspeed.
Help in Accident Study.
Such records help tremendously
in studying accidents, and therefore
in devising preventive measures.
Before the war some airlinerS
carried similar recording devices.
but they have been unavailable until
recently because of wartime material
shortages. Improved types now
can be had
In setting up the independent in
quiry group yesterday, Mr. Truman
did not amplifv his reference to
the recent series of air crashes
which he said left him deeply con-
cerned' over commercial flying
safety.
But between May 29 and last
Friday the 18th, the 146 lives lost
in three crackups exceeded by 40
the total number of domestic air
line fatalities in all of 1916.
The first Of the three was a
United Air Lines plane which failed
TO get off the runway at New York.
Forty three persons were killed.
Emphasis in the original investiga-
ton was on a shifting wind during
LOST