AIR ACCIDENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25393, 26 November 1943, Page 2

AIR ACCIDENTS

MOST COMMON CAUSE PILOT’S OWN NEGLECT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 25. The steps taken to investigate aircraft accidents in New Zealand and to prevent similar happenings were outlined in a statement made to-day by the Minister of Defence, Mr F. Jones. Mr Jones said that obviously the biggest factors in aircraft accidents were the number of hours flown, the number of flights made day land night, and the number of pupils, pilots, and aircraft involved in the Dominion’s training activities. The possibility of accidents in any given period would therefore depend very largely upon an increase or decrease of those activities. This, of course, the Minister said, did not provide an answer for those who might feel some concern about the preventability of accidents. People would want to know, first, if the aircraft used were suitable for the work they were doing; secondly, if the training methods and the nature of the flying operations were liable to increase the risk of flying accidents, and, thirdly, whether there was any possible neglect in respect to other safety factors. Technical Efficiency Replying to these points, the Minister said that the training aircraft ir. New Zealand were of the same type as those used throughout the Empire air training plan, and the technical efficiency of the ground personnel anu the standard of aircraft maintenance in the R.N.Z.A.F. were acknowledged to be equal to those in any Empire country. He could say quite definitely that accidents due to mechanical or technical defects were exceptional. The training methods. Mr Jones added, were based on the accumulated experience of millions of hours of flying expended in the training of tens of thousands of pilots in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. From this experience had been evolved regulations, procedures and practices all designed to enable the student pilot to adjust himself readily to the new sensations’of flying and provide a strict pattern of behaviour to be followed. Nothing which human ingenuity could do to minimise actual flying risks had been left undone. “We are therefore confronted with the unfortunate fact that by far the most common cause of accidents is, and will probably remain, the failure of the personal rather than the mechanical element. The forms that these errors take are largely identical—neglect of fundamental safety precautions. This includes deliberate disobedience of the very strict orders issued in regard to low flying. In this matter, however, we must make a fundamental distinction between the risks involved in the intensive training of men suited for combat duties and the normal flying activities of peace-time. “If it were possible to ensure that every pilot would adhere to the rules formulated from experience for his safety and conform to the practices which he has been taught to enable him to act properly under all conditions, as a normal pilot is expected to act. flying accidents would practically cease. We are naturally dealing with men of a venturesome nature, however, and it is not easy in practice to achieve this ideal. The action taken in the R.N.Z.A.F. for breaches of flying discipline Is severe, but unfortunately it often occurs that a more severe penalty has been paid by the offending pilot.” Reason for Increase Mr Jones said it would thus be realised that the apparent increase in the number of casualties recorded was due primarily to the increase in flying training operations following the continued expansion of the R.N.Z.A.F. This, however, was not accepted .as something which was inevitable. The efforts made by the R.N.Z.A.F. to prevent accidents were both painstaking and contimious. In addition to a court of inquiry, there was within the R.N.Z.A.F. an organisation concerned solely with the investigation of accidents. When its recommendations indicated that the possibility of an accident of a similar nature could be reduced in future by a change of training technique or flying control, or bv some modification to an aircraft, the necessary changes were effected. Concluding, Mr Jones said that complete records of all aircraft accidents were kept, and the circumstances of every accident Were systematically analysed. “No accident, however minor, is viewed with complacency,” he said, “ and however low our accident rate may be brought, those concerned with the problem will not be satisfied until it is further reduced.”