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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0771.PDF
r.2726 VOLU ME 7 : THURSDAY 8 JUNE 1961 Editor- in- Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. G U N8TON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULXMBE IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 782 Anglo-French Co-operation 783 The Paris Show 784 Missiles and Spaceflight 795 Caravelle a la General Electric 797 Straight and Level 799 Bright and Breezy 8OO Accidents Analysed 8O2 Paris Pot-Pourri 8O4 Sport and Business 8O7 Service Aviation 809 Correspondence 81O Air Commerce 811 Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. TelegramsFlightpres London SE1. Annual sub- scriptions: Home £4 las. Overseas £5.Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at NewYork, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion street: telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate 3; telephonelilackfriars 4412 or Deansgate. 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street Cl; tele-phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd,1061. Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpress can be granted onlyunder written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with dueacknowledgement. AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 Safety and Censorship WHEN, at the end of 1960, the Ministry of Aviation published its AnnualSurvey of Accidents for 1958, we said it was not easy to understand why compilation of this analysis should have taken almost two years to complete. We considered it to be a disappointing document and suggested that its value could bs increased if it were more promptly circulated and if more information could be included. A question was asked in the House of Commons, and the Minister agreed to improve matters. This he has done. It is with surprise and approval that we have just received the Survey for 1959 (see pages 802-803 of this issue). Not only is this some seven months ahead of the traditional slouching schedule; the document really does contain fuller information—though there is still no section headed "causes and recommendations," without which any air safety publication is incomplete. If it is agreed that the whole object of publishing information about accidents is to improve safety, then causes and recommendations must be published also. We can write on the cover of this report: "Improving." But the improve- ment progresses from a low datum line. Indeed, Ministry unwillingness to reveal the findings of certain air accident investigations amounts, in our view, to censorship. For example, to the question "Why did two jet airliners nearly collide over London Airport on February 21 ?" the Ministry still refuses to give an answer. When a question is asked in Parliament the Minister says that, because foreign governments are involved, consultations have to take place. Agreed, but need these consultations take three and a half months? The Cairns Committee report on the UK accident investigation system thought that delay in the publication of findings should not be tolerated. Published before the near-miss in question, it said that a "near-miss over controlled airspace may be only marginally removed from a major tragedy; and because the crews involved are both available to say what happened, the lessons to be learned must often be valuable." Mr Justice Cairns also recom- mended that "all reports of accidents should be made available to the public." Now for 1960 What were the circumstances and causes of the accident (happily non-fatal) to a BOAC Boeing 707 which suffered £500,000-worth of damage in a landing at London Airport on December 24? BOAC say that the Ministry of Aviation must speak on this subject, but the Ministry remains silent. The apportion- ment of blame is not the main concern; what matters is that as many people as possible shall know what went wrong so that any mistake that may have been made is not repeated. Again we ask the Accidents Investigation Branch of the MoA to publish, promptly and fully, the causes and circumstances of all notifiable accidents. And to avoid any suspicion that the Ministry is censoring information about matters in which (like the London Airport near-miss) it is an interested party, let the Accidents Investigation Branch be independent of the parent Ministry's information office. Meanwhile we look forward to the publication, perhaps before the summer is out, of the Ministry's Annual Survey—expanded as we suggest—for the year 1960.
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