“JUST BAD LUCK”

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 71, 17 December 1935, Page 9

“JUST BAD LUCK”

Trouble With Airliners In Australia The view that trouble rath the De Havilland express air-liners in Australia has been due to “just bad luck” is held by Mr. H. D. Mill, New Zealand agent for the De Havilland Co. Mr. Mill, when interviewed on the subject, said that machines of this type Were operating iu many parts of the world, but the only place in which there had been a suggestion of trouble was Australia. The machines were in daily use on some of the biggest air services in the world, including Jersey Airways, Railway Air Services, Imperial Airways and Qantas Empire Airways. Jersey Airways alone flew from 2000 to 3000 miles a day. None of these services had suffered through the use of the machines, nor bad there been any necessity for modification in the ’planes. “I don’t think there is any justification for panic,” said Mr. Mill. “It is purely a remarkable coincidence that there has been trouble with some of these machines at the same place in a short time. These machines are flying only a fraction of the distance of similar ones in other parts of the world. When we b n ve examined all the usual features and failed to find an explanation we have to look further. It is just bad luck that these accidents have happened so close to us and focused our attention on that type of machine.”

Mr. Mill considered that the suspension of the certificates of airworthiness was a somewhat hasty action born of an atmosphere of panic which had been created in Australia. Australia, like England, had its aircraft inspection department, but the department could only take the action of investigating the cause of accidents to discover if there were any structural weakness or failure, and if so to compel the removal of the cause.

Safety in the air was essential, but merely to suspend certificates of airworthiness without finding any weakness savoured of panic.