ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 4

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

FLIGHTS IN ALL WEATHERS (Rec. 11.45 a.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 24. Figures at the end of September shoiv that although 1,000 aircraft made the North Atlantic crossing during the preceding year, the percentage of loss is less than half of 1 per cent., says the- Air Ministry News Service. These crossings have been made from east to west and from west to east in all weathers by aircraft of Transport Command of the IR.A.F. and by the United States Air Transport Command, as well as .by aircraft of British Overseas Ainvays Corporation. This high level of safety in conditions far more arduous than will be the case in peace is due to three features—reliability of the aircraft, the high training standard of air crews, and ground organisation. Reinforcement aircraft are frequently flown over by young crews who have just finished their training in Canada and have taken an intensive course in Transport Command before crossing. For many it is their first really long flight, but they make the crossing like veterans.

The regular crews of the Transport Command are of many nationalities, and pilots of nearly all the Allied nations are Hying the Atlantic regularly— Poles, Czechs, Norwegians, French, Belgain, Dutch. American, and dominion.