STARVED SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 288, 5 September 1928, Page 11

STARVED SERVICE

NUMEROUS FRENCH FLYING - FATALITIES MACHINES DECLARED UNSAFE INSUFFICIENT UPKEEP (United Press Association.— By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian I’ress Association.) Paris, Septeniber 3. ■ The tragedy in which M. Bokanowski and his companions lost their lives draws from the entire Press the suggestion that French aviation is yielding an excessive number of fatalities. Tile universal opinion in France is that, something is seriously wrong with military and civil aviation. Foreign experts and French airmen put their finger on the immediate cause, and point out that most of the military machines are out of date, while the commercial machines are suffering from an excess of work and insufficient upkeep. It is suggested that in both cases pilots dare not protest, though they know their machines are unsafe, otherwise they would be blackmarked. The primary reason in botli cases is lack of money. The air service is allegedly starved and commercial companies’ subsidies are beggarly. DEATH OF FRENCH MINISTER BRITISH MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, September 3. The British Government and Sir Samuel Iloare, Air Minister, have sent messages to Taris expressing profound sympathy at the death, of M. Bokanowski, French Minister for Commerce, including Civil Aviation, in the aeroplane crash at Tout yesterday, in which four others, including the SecretaryGeneral of the Aerial Navigation Company. were also killed. Sir Samuel Hoare speaks of the “irreparable loss which the French Government and French aviation have sustained in the tragic death of M. Bokanowski.”