SAFETY IN THE AIR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 91, 27 January 1934, Page 5

SAFETY IN THE AIR.

COMPARATIVE FIGURES. BRITAIN AND AMERICA. LONDON, January 10. Major C. C. Turner, chief instructor at the School of Military Aeronautics, Oxford, in an article, in the “Daily Telegraph” says: “It is remarkable that the statistics of the United States i air lines for the first six months of 1933 explode the prevalent belief that the higher speed of American commercial aeroplanes lies been obtained at the cost of safety of Americans/ In that period the machines fleiv 24,668,000 miles, and carried 248,000 passengers, 913,000 miles being flown for each death. British machines flew 1,240,000 miles, carrying 29,000 passengers, 102,000 miles being flown for each death.” Major Turner says the City of Liverpool disaster made the period a bad one for Britain’s statistics. He goes on to say, that Imperial Airways’ four-engin-ed biplanes are the most comfortable in the world, but says England has neglected high-speed mail-carriers which have made America the leading air country. . “Safety,” Major Turner adds, “need not be sacrificed for speed, regarding which Britain has a year’s leeway to make up.” He instances the French and Dutch high-speed flights to the Far East, and Germany’s plans for a great all-round increase of speed in 1934.

The City of Liverpool, while proceeding from Cologne to Croydon on March 23 last year, crashed and caught fire near Dixmude, Belgium, all 12 passengers and the crew, consisting of the pilot, engineer, and wireless operator, being killed. Ten persons were killed on December 30, when the Apollo crashed in Belgium.