AIR CRASH INQUIRY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21185, 4 November 1938, Page 11

AIR CRASH INQUIRY

ABSENCE OF RADIO GUIDES SIGNALS FREQUENTLY BLOTTED OUT United Press Association -By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 3, 11.15 p.m.) MELBOURNE, November 3. “iTiere is a complete absence cf radio guides to Australian airports in bad weather,” Captain G. H. Purves, pilot of Australian National Airways on the Melbourne-Sydney route, told the Air Accidents Investigation Committee which is inquiring into the Kyeema disaster. “To his mind,” he said, “the installation of Lorenz Radio Beam would solve all pilots’ troubles. Weather information,” he added, “was reasonably accurate, but not in enough detail. Webb received 10 to 12 words when he should have received a general indication of conditions round Melbourne.” The witness said: “The wave length now used for communication with ’planes was the worst possible from the viewpoint of static interference and there was grave risk of similar interference if a beacon were installed on the same wave length.” W. Launder Cridge, radio operator at Essendon, said: “All aircraft signals were frequently blotted out by a police transmitter operating a few miles from the aerodrome and sometimes by the National Radio Station, 3 AR.” Squadron Leader C. S. Wiggins, superintendent of the Radio Civil Aviation Board, said: “Two outstanding aircraft radio difficulties in Australia were the high prevailing noise level, due to atmospheric interference, which was far greater than in the United States and Europe, and the wider distance between aerodromes and radio stations than in Europe and the United States.” Witness said: “Beacon systems could not enable blind landing to be accepted as a normal procedure.” He classified them as low ceiling approach systems. The inquiry was adjourned till tomorrow.