Kyeema Disaster Rouses Australians; Whose Responsibility?

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1938, Page 7

Kyeema Disaster Rouses Australians; Whose Responsibility?

SYDNEY, October 26.

'THE NEWSPAPERS ARE PUBLISHING SEVERE CRITICISM OF THE FEDERAL AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NON-FUNC-TIONING OF THE LORENZ BEACON, WHECH, IF IT HAD BEEN WORKING, WOULD, IT IS CLAIMED, ASSUREDLY HAVE SAVED THE KYEEMA (WHICH CRASHED IN A FOG ON DANDENONG MOUNTAIN) AND 18 LIVES FROM DISASTER.

Mr G. A. Robinson, managing di rector of Air Lines of Australia, today revealed that pilots had actually brought air liners home to M,ascot aerodrome from Adelaide and Brisbane on the Lorenz beam, and had voted it 100 per cent efficient, but after that experiment it had been switched off, apparently to aw,ait the Civil Aviation Department’s own official tests in its own time.

Mr K. M. Freeman, president of the Institute of Air Pilots: “We know what caused the accident. What we want is an inquiry into the policy and administration which made an accident of this kind not only possible, but likely to occur again at any time.”

Thorough Investigation

The Government has decided to make a revolutionary change in the constitution of the committee which will investigate the Kyeema air liner disaster. The Attorney-General, Mr R. G. Menzies, announced that because of the special circumstances involved in the disaster, a leading barrister and a highly qualified technical aviation expert, not connected with the Civil Aviation Department, would be added to the membership of the committee.

The inquiry would assume the same position as a court of law.