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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1031.PDF
Though not quite as large as the exceptional windows of the Viscount, those of the BAC One-Eleven are more closely pitched. They are of VCIO type, and are elliptical with an interior picture frame. This pic- ture was recently taken at Weybridge in the mock-up BACKWARD THINKING IN AMERICA THE Americans, who have contributed so much towards theevolution of the modern airliner, and of air transport, arestill non-committal on the subject of rear-facing seats. The FAA is studying a possible regulation making aft-facing seats compulsory,but a recent FAA conference revealed widely differing views on the subject—as usually happens when this issue is discussed in Europe. One airline official went so far as to challenge a survey whichshowed that only three per cent of 10,000 military passengers objected to rear-facing seats on the grounds that the survey was"loaded" because it started with the line "In view of the safety advantages of aft-facing seats, would you object to . . ." And aLockheed spokesman said studies showed that seat reversal would add from five to ten pounds of weight per passenger, because a rear-facing seat would need stronger floor attachments, and that over ten years this extra weight would add nearly £lm to the operatingcosts of each aircraft. This statement is all the more surprising in view of the widespread use of rear-facing seats in military SuperConstellations and other US Air Force types. It is an argument that could be applied to life-belts or fire-fighting equipment. In America as in this country military users of air transportfavour facing backwards. Col John Stapp, well known for his pioneer work in riding rocket sleds to test acceleration and decelera-tion forces, favoured rear-facing seats and said that the Federal Government should subsidize their cost, while the US ArmedForces Institute of Pathology urged the making of such seats compulsory. Less decisive attitudes were expressed by other bodies:the Air Transportation Association said that all available evidence showed that rear-facing seats could be more dangerous than for-ward-facing seats in some crashes (surely rather obvious ?); NASA's opinion was that much had to be done to increase the chances ofsurviving a crash, but that seat direction did not appear to be a major solution. Likewise non-committal, the Aerospace IndustriesAssociation, while recommending further research into the question, doubted if rear-facing seats offered any real increase in safety.The ALPA's view was that even if rear-facing seats were safer, it would be better to spend the money on improving airports, as thatwas where most survivable crashes occurred. It was generally agreed that safety could be improved by suchmeans as removing hard trays from seat backs; but the tendency to face away from the rear-facing issue was underlined by the sug-gestions put forward that passengers might be induced to wear shoulder harnesses as well as seat belts. FLIGHT, 27 July 1961 133 1961 HALF-YEAR ACCIDENT RECORD THIS year ought to show a rather better safety record than thatof 1960, if the trend evident in the first six months of 1961 is maintained for the rest of the year. During this period there were21 fatal accidents to civil transport aircraft on revenue flights, and 442 lives were lost; this compares with 23 accidents and 590 livesin the first six months of 1960. Over 350 passengers and 90 crew members were killed inaccidents up to the end of June 1961. There were three accidents involving big jets, compared with only one in the whole of lastyear (crew-training accidents and those involving non-fatal write- offs are not included). With the majority of jet deliveries nowcompleted, a higher accident rate from this class of aircraft must obviously be expected; meanwhile, this year's accident rate so farfollows last year's pattern in that widely-used piston-engined types are lost more often than jets and turboprops. Only six accidents involved Latin-American carriers, or half thenumber in the corresponding period of last year. The table below includes non-scheduled as well as scheduled flights. It is not knownin all cases which were scheduled flights, nor can some of the fatality figures be broken down into passengers and crew. Date Jan 2 Jan 3 Jan 18 Jan 19 Jan 22 Jan 24 Feb3 Feb6 Feb 15 March 10 March 28 April 4 April 20 April 20 May 10 May 12 May 24 May 30 June 12 June 18 ! [ June 30 ; _ CSA Finnair Aeronaves de Mexico Sabena Capitol Airways GarudaIndonesian GarudaIndonesian UAT Sabena LAV CSA LAN (Chile) Papuan Air Transport Ethiopian Air France LACSA (Costa Rica) TAA VIASA KLM i Interocean Transconti- nental 11-14 DC-3 DC-8 C-46 DC-3 ' DC-3 1 i Max Holste Broussard 707-329 DC-3 11-18 DC-3 Piaggio P. 166 Bell 47J L.I649A Starliner DC-3 DC-4 DC-8 (on lease from KLM) Electra DC-4 C-46 LvCaLlun Ruzyne Vasa Id lew Md Kasenga Brookshire, Texas Mount Burangrang Between Surabaja and Balikpapan Grenoble Near Melsbroek Near Car- ache, Vene- zuela Near Nuremberg In the Andes Between Popondetta and Port Moresby 175 miles n.w. of Addis Ababa Over the Sahara Mount Arenal Near Brisbane Between Lisbon and the Azores Cairo Kano Buenos Aires Fata Pass. 5 22 — 1 — 16 2, — 61 12 t( 52 t 20 _ 2 69 _ 48 17 — 21 • ties Crew 5 3 4 1 2 5 5 1 II Jtal )tal 4 1 1 9 2 14 2 1 2 ^0 I • ^^d III stances Hit HT wires on take-off Pilot error Crashed on take-off in snowstorm Unknown Port engine caught fire; wing came off Flew into mountain Missing; presumed crashed Unknown Crashed onfinals; runa- way autopilot Flew into mountain Explosion in mid-air Missing; pre- sumed due to icing Unknown Unknown Mid-air dis- integration Flew into mountain Unknown Unknown Hit hill on approach Struck by lightning when landing Crashed onlanding An MEA Viscount is a regular sight at Gatwick nowadays, having been chartered for a month by Jersey Airlines for operation on the busy routes to Dinard, Jersey and Bournemouth. The aircraft is a 56-seoter and is flown by MEA crew
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