Take-Off and Landing
The number of accidents to civil aircraft continues to mount almost as fast as the rapidly growing volume of intense public interest in the whole matter. It is indeed a very serious matter and if public interest can do anything to increase air safety it must be allowed to do it. But it is also a highly technical matter and it is essential to emphasise a number of precautions which must be taken before an opinion is formed. In the first place weather hazards are such that there is at least a presumption that dangers are greater at this time of the year. That, of course, means in the first place that precautions must be proportionately greater. It does not mean that it is permissible to jump to the conclusion, before the official enquiries have been held, that ice-formation on the wings in the case of two recent crashes at take-off was the sole cause. Then again there is a danger of an exaggerated outcry against Dakota aircraft. Now Dakotas have proved themselves in war and peace to be very good aircraft indeed, as is witnessed by the fact that they outnumber any other passenger-carrying type in the world ; and the latter fact leads to the simple statistical conclusion that on the largely incalculable human hazard alone, the chances are that a high proportion of crashes will be Dakota crashes—and that through no fault of the aircraft. But there is no doubt whatever about the dis- closure in the enquiry into the Stowting crash that the petrol gauges used in many Dakotas are faulty (as, in common experience, are most petrol gauges when low levels are reached). Nor is there any doubt about the fact that a greater all-up weight for Dakotas is tolerated in this country than in the United States and certain Scandinavian countries. These things must be investigated and they will probably provide part of the explanation of the complex of difficulties which affect aircraft particularly at the critical times of take-off and landing. Imperfect communication between air and ground is clearly another important factor. But there is no simple answer.
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