OCR Text |
Show FLYING ACCIDENTS ARE FEW NOWADAYS "Scheduled Operation" Is Relatively Safe. (By En WIN GREER. President Oroer College Col-lege of Aviation) It is In the field of miscellaneous flying "stunting," sightseeing, photographic, photo-graphic, cotton dusting, Instruction, etc. that the great bulk of accidents occur. However, it cannot be declared offhand that the accident rate In this group Is greater than In scheduled flying, for there are no figures to the number of pilots engaged, number of flights made or mileage flown to check against The record of 077 accidents in . miscellaneous flying and 202 passengers, pas-sengers, therefore, does not indicate the extent, if any, to which this sort of flying is more hazardous. There is a very definite difference between scheduled ' operation of aircraft air-craft over fixed routes, and miscellaneous miscel-laneous flying, Clarence Young, director di-rector of aeronautics, Department of Commerce, points out In the case of the former, tho ability of the pilot is a known quantity he can take care of himself in practically every situation situa-tion where the human brain is a factor; fac-tor; he Is afforded every protection which can be devised to assist him, both before the flight In the form of weather reports and during the trip in the form of beacons, radio reports of weather conditions ahead, intermediate landing fields for use In emergencies, etc. The sufficiency of this type of operation opera-tion Is proven by the fact that more than 92 per cent of the . scheduled flights were completed last year. That means that trouble was encountered In less than one in twelve flights, and not always, of course, doe9 the term "trouble" mean accident |