INQUIRIES INTO AIR CRASHES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25834, 20 June 1949, Page 6

INQUIRIES INTO AIR CRASHES

MEMBERSHIP OF BOARDS REPLY BY MINISTER TO ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS "When an accident happens I want to know how it happened and what steps should be taken to prevent occurrence of similar accidents in the future. In order to get the best possible advice on these points I must obtain the services of the people best qualified to give me that advice, and it can be said that the people most experienced in aviation in New Zealand are members of the air operating companies or of the Air Department.” This was the reply of the Minister in charge of the Air Departinent (Mr F. Jones) to representations by the Associated Chambers of Commerce that members of the commission of inquiry into the loss of the National Airways Corporation’s aircraft Kereru near Waikanae on March 18. with the loss of 15 lives, should not be officers of the Air Department or of air operating services. The members of the commission of inquiry were Judge Stilwell, Group Captain W. C. Sheen (the DeputyChief of the Air Staff), and Mr R. A. Kirkup.

“We agree wholeheartedly with your view that the best possible advjee should be obtained as to how an accident happened and as to what steps should be taken to prevent the occurrence of similar accidents in the future,” says the Associated Chambers in a further letter to the Minister. But giving advice is a very different thing from actually adjudicating upon these questions We therefore hold the view that persons in the service of the Air Department °r of the air operating services should not be members of a commission of inquiry that is going to adjudicate on matters affecting the department or services in question. "If persons other than those to whom we have referred are not available for appointment, then we think that, those persons should be appointed to act merely in an advisory capacity and not as members of the commission in the full sense.”