AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1939, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

CHANGE IN CONTROL

DIRECTOR INSTEAD OF BOARD

SYDNEY, January 9

The Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. H. V. C. Thorby, accompanied by his wife and daughter, left by flying-boat today for Singapore. Before leaving, Mr. Thorby made a surprise announcement that the Civil Aviation Board, which was severely criticised at the conclusion of the recent Kyeema inquiry, was to be replaced by a Direc-tor-General of Civil Aviation, -vtfho will act in collaboration with senior technical officers.

Mr. Thorby added that Mr. Mehaffey, at present Director-General of Public Works, would act temporarily in that capacity, pending a permanent appointment by the Federal Cabinet next month. Mr. Mehaffey, who is a New Zealander, was lecturer in engineering at a New Zealand University College from 1909 to 1910.

The crash of the aeroplane Kyeema on October 25, with the loss of 18 lives, was set down to an error of observation by the pilot, Captain Webb, after an inquiry by the Air Accidents and Investigation Committee recently. The committee held that the error could not have been made if the ultra-high-frequency beacon approved ih March, 1937, had been operating at the time of the disaster. The committee condemned the Civil Aviation Board for its failure to provide adequate safety machinery. The Controller-General, Captain bE. C. Johnston, was declared to have deliberately and persistently set his face against decentralisation of the board and the body to be so constituted as to be incapable of any decisive action.

A Mr. M. W. Mehaffey graduated B.E. at Canterbury University College in 1910 and later held the post of chief engineer to lighthouses in Victoria.