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Another aeroplane flight in which a Minister and a number of other important public servants were concerned ended, as some chance and a good deal of skill on the part of the pilot decided, only in misadventure. It might just as easily, as the Minister, Mr. Oliver Lyttelton, remarked, have been disaster. Some recent acci- dents, like that to the Liberator bringing Foreign Office and other officials home from San Francisco, remain unexplained because the aeroplane simply vanished. In this case there is some explanation. Here is Mr. Lyttelton's own statement: " The starboard engine cut out just after the take-off from Hendon Aerodrome, when we were about 30o feet up. Shortly afterwards the other engine failed right over the houses in the middle of Hendon." What on earth is to be said of this—that nothing can ever prevent engines from behaving like this? Or that the engines were never properly inspected before the machine left the aerodrome? Either assumption is sufficiently
depressing. * * * *
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