Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS] WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1926 CIVIL AVIATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 December 1926, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS] WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1926 CIVIL AVIATION.

The claim that civil aviation is now relatively free from risk can be sustained. Probably it is less dangerous to travel by air than by motor car. No doubt mishaps stilL occur, aiul from tho nature of 'the case they are usually attended with loss of life. But Sir Alan Oobham declares that in tlie vast majority of instances they are the result of carelessness, reeklessnes, physical unfitness, or some mechanical defect which should not hove been overlooked. As a rule, in a word, they have been avoidable. It is significant that in Britain insurance rates have fallen from 30 per cent, to 1 1 per cent, since 1920. The figures speak for themselves. Statistics for civil aviation in Britain during a recent year show that among aircraft plying for hire the -proportion of accidents resulting in death or iiijuiy to occupants was approximately one per 0229 flights, and one per 263,000 miles covered. That record, we believe, will be found to compare very favourably with most other forms of transport. Attention has been drawn to the effect which the competition of air services will' have -upon the steamship services. The higher fares which t'he former charge will prevent the less affluent from patronising them. But to those who have the

necessary means, and to whom speed is a desideratum, they will be a boon, and the experience of the lines now operating between Britain, and the Continent suggests that this class is numerous enough, to justify the launching of new and more ambitious air 'ventures.