Evening star., 1947-01-28
|AirIines Are Guilty
|0f Confusing Public,
Hartman Charges
By the Assoeiufed Press

By the Assoeiufed Press
NEW YORK, Jan. 28.-The air.
lines smarted today from an oral
spanking laid on by Secretary of
Commerce Hartman, whose depart
ment operates the civil airways and
landing facilities.
Confusion and disillusionment"
have resulted from leading the peo-
pie to think in terms of giant, all
weather planes and de luxe ground
services, Secretary Hartman told
about 1000 industry representatives
gathered last night for the Institute
of the Aeronautical Sciences annual
honors dinner.
He said that as a result of disillu-
sionment airline patronage and air
craft sales business had declinned.
Safety Record Cited.
Secretary Hartman had no quar-
rel with the safety record of sched-
uled airunes, pointing out that he
and his family flew regularly and
that safety had improved steadily.
However, he said, progress must con-
tinue through improved facilities
and services, additional airways, new
methods of control, more regularity
of schedules and more concentration
on human and technical factors.
Secretary Hartman said 1872 pas
sengers were killed last year in all
United States commercial operations
scheduled, scheduled, domes-
tic and international OF those
deaths, rs were on scheduled do
mestic airlines, he said, adding that
the figure should be considered in
relation to the volume of miles
travelled.
passenger fatality rate for
last year was 124 for every 100,-
900 900 passenger miles, based on
IS deaths and 6,046, ,00O, 900 miles
of travel. The 1945 rate was 2.14,
with 76 fatalities in 3,554,714,828
miles,
The Secretary said the airlines
had advertised for more business at
a time when they were filled to ca
pacity and had advertised proposed
services in such a way that the
public did not always recognize that
they were in the future rather than
the present.
Radar Difficulties Mentioned.
AS for the current debate over bad
weather airport approach facilities,
Secretary Hartman said wartime
developments in their military form
were not always Immediately adapt
able to peacetime uses, land GOA
ground control approach or the
radar "talk-down" method of
bringing a pilot through overcast)
was one of them"
Military GOA sets are difficult to
maintain and would require about
25 operators to maintain 24-hour
service, he said, but refinements are
being made which will reduce the
number of men.
The institute program today called
for the first of more than 80 papers
on technical subjects to be read In
the next three days.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Life
Insurance reported that only 2 per
cent of companies in the field re-
fused to write new policies covering
travel on scheduled airlines, while
81 per cent place no limitation on
such travel and IA per cent limit
either the amount of the policy or
the amount of flying. In 1885, it
said, only per cent of the COM
panies had no air travel limitations.
Among those honored by the in
stitute were Col. William G. Brown,
Army Air Forces, Washington; Je-
rome Lederer, chief engineer, Aero
Insurance Underwriters, of New
York and Washington; Russell G.
Robinson, National Advisory Com
mittee for Aeronautics, and j. Bar
ker Van zandt, Brookings Institu-
ton, both of Washington.