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rOtniTEKW MZDFOR3 IOREOOW) MAIL THIBtTOB
Monday, July t, 195'
Anniversary of Grand Canyon Air Crash Notes Progress Made in Safely
(b sostBi jr. sTEBtma
Unitcto) Pitt CoraMpondent
One yfar fgo Sa ardsy, two
Riant airliners bisected an ar.gje
of death over the Gran Canyon.
In a lew sickening econris'
128 lives were snuffed out in
history's worst commerc(a avia
tion disaster.
In the length of ,hne it ikes
a football team to run off a play;
two magnificent transport planes
were imashed into twisted rub
ble.
And a stunned nation was
made suddenly aware of a gi
gantic air safety problem.
brand Canyon was the im
possible" accident.
The airliners collided in rea
sonably clear weather, at a high
altitude and in literally empty
air space.
The lesson was grimly clear: If
It could happen over the Grand
Cayon it was far more likely to
happen again in the congested
air approaches to the big cities.
10 Months of Investigation -
The Civial Aeronautics board
spent almost 10 months investi
gating why Transworld Airlin's
nuper-Constellation and United
Airlige'i DC-7 collided.
In lis final report the CAB
Mid the "probable cause was
that the pilots did not see each
other in time" which was like
faying the collision was acci
dental. But the CAB went on to list a
number of factors that singly or
in combination may have "blind
ed" the pilots. These included:
Limited cockpit visibilty.
Intervenng clouds that pre
vented the pilots from seeing the
other aircraft in time to maneu
ver away.
Preoccupation with normal
cockpit duties.
Physiological limits to hu
man vision.
Insufficiency of en route air
traffic advisory information due
to inadequate facilities and lack
of personnel in air traffic con
trol. Preoccupation with unrelat
ed cockpit duties such as trying
to provide passengers with a
more scenic view of the canyon.
Factors Discarded
This possible sightseeing fac
tor has been discarded by most
air safety experts because of the
altitude (21.000 feet) and the
clouds and haze present.
But the other suggested Sac
tors added up to an indictment
of the air traffic system as it
existed on June 30, 1956.
The TWA and United planes
came together because their
pilots didn't see each other in
time but that visual failure
was merely the culmination of
many weaknesses in the system
under which the airmen were
operating.
Both planes were flying "off
airways" in air space uncon
trolled by federal traffic control
centers. This was because the
controlled airways were not as
direct. But In choosing to fly
the uncontrolled routes, the
pilots were made solely respon
sible for avoiding any other
traffic.
ti'Oi frm uosaob ii sJtfnen 8 lower tltituae. had been
2L?J?J!ZLZ!2tJL.'Ft Hajiveft permission to climb 1,000
trr timM aate? tim fctt bov the ciouds. In d'jinfi
ZZZJUiZZI&SL m ".'"SmWt o, he had to reach 21.000 feet
a i n " 1 u iuuc ut
lnr.edu DC-?. TWA was told
tnat to "ted was at that altitude
bat the undermanned ATC cen
ter aloof the route were too
busy to warn Cnited. The ceo
ujsr had their hands full moni
toring traffic on controlled air
ways; they could not accept re
sponsibility for planes in uncon
trolled sir space.
Da41y pattern Sst
Thus, the deadly pattern was
set. Insufficient federal airways,
inadequate air traffic control fa
cilities and personnel, obsolete
regulations that ignored the vis
ual handicaps of pilots, and two
airliners unknowingly approach
ing their fatal rendezvous at 300
miles an hour.
That was Grand Canyon one
year ago Saturday. Has anything
been done about thoje conditions
in (te;12 months since?
These are the poijtiv ac
complishments: 1. As quickly aji possible the
airlines are shiftin to instru
ment flight rules both M high
altitudes and in the more con
gested airways. All carriers have-
voluntarily gone to "positive
separation" for all flights above
18,000 feet, which means they
must fly on. federally-designated
airways under the monitoring
and guidance of air traffic con
trol centers.
Effective July 1, every flight
above 9.500 feet in tfti heavily
travelled "golden triangle" be
tween New York, Washington
anChicagmust fly IFR in con
trolled air space. And eventual
ly, every commercially-scheduled
flight will be IFR from
takeoff to landing.
2. The Civil Aeronautics Ad
ministration, which operates the
air traffic control system, is al
most ready to control all civil
and military flights above 24.000
feet. By next January this floor
will be lowered to 15,000 feet.
CAA has increased the number
of one-way airways, particularly
between New York-Washington
and New York-Chicago. It also
has designated 12 direct trans
continental "super-skyways" for
safe separation and control of
coast-to-coast high-speed flights,
including the forthcoming jejs.
Five-Year Expansion
3. CAA, with congressional
blessing, has compressed its
original five-year expansion of
the federal airways system into
three years, and stepped up
spending on this system from
S246 million to at least $810 mil
lion. Mora Equipment
4. From June 30, 1956, to last
May 30, CAA added nearly 7,000
milei of electronically-monitored
airways to its system. It put
into commission millions of dol
lars worth of radio and radar
equipment both along the air
ways and at airports themselves.
It also recruited 2,200 new air
traffic controllers and spent $9
million on 23 long-range radar
sets with first deliveries sched
uled for August.
5. CAA in the past 12 months
has spent another $9 million on
improved communications equip
ment for more efficient voice
traffic between pilots and con
trollers.
t. CAA has revised its regula
tions to rut down the visual
flight rulee under which pilots
must beer complete responsi
bility for avoiding other traffic.
IFR is now given pilots, only
when they request it: formerly
CAA controllers initiated IFR
restrictions.
7. Both CAA and the airlines,
with pilots' cooperation, are re
stricting the "1,000 on top" clear
ances which played a role in
the Grand Canyon crash. Pilots
must now fly at least 2,000 ieet
above the clouds.
8. Congress and the aviation
industry have been handed a
massive blueprint for future
handling of air traffic, drawn up
by President Eisenhower's
special aviation facilities plan
ning commisson. It calls for a
temporary three-year airways
modernization board which
would test new air traffic con
trol system and equipment. It
details elaborate future plans for
traffic control at major airports
and recommends a new, com
pletely independent federal
aviation agency.
These are the positive .accom
plishments that followed Grand
Canyon. Bp,t they do not gjv
the whole picture.
Air force Demaeds Ban
Some of the government's
airways Expansion pjans have
been blocked by conflicts with
the military over use of tfir
space. Sen. A. S. (Mike) Mon
roney (D-Okla.) arned recently
that military "encroachment" of
civilian air Wpace nuy warrant
a congressional investigation.
For eSample, CAA pla-ns to
establish a direct, controlled air
way across the Grand Canyon
collided with an Air Force de
mandthat the area be banned
to commercial planes. The con
ttbversy is still being thrashed
out. As of now the CAA's pro
posed 12 super-skyways for
transcontinental flights are be
ing threatened py the military
blocking out sections for air
training and gunnery practice.
During the recent naval maneu
vers which President Eisenhow
er witnessed off the Virginia
coas airlines were forced to
detour more than 200 flights in
a 27-hour period.
Despite tht current drive
toward safer air traffic control,
near-misses take place daily. A
recent report to Congress re
vealed that aircraft are involved
in two near-misses a day while
Hying over densely populated
areas. The Civil Aeronautics
Board reported 452 near-colli
sions in the last four months of
1956 101 of them occurring
over the largest metropolitan
areas. '
Last month, the aWation in
dustry itself ruefully admitted
that two years of research have
failed to develop anti-collision
warning devices. Nearly 70 com
panies have been trying to per
fect anti-collision or proximity
warning equipment without success.
Could Grand Canyon happen
again?
Chances Believed Reduced
Government and aviation in-
dusfty officials believe the
chances have been reduced con
siderably, thanks to better con
trol of high-flying traffic and
the virtual elimination ef visual
fiisht rules for such planes.
But the eollijion danger itself
is still haunting pilots and air
line executives. Traffic in con
gested airport areas gets heavier
by the day. And no matter how
much improved control goes into
commercial airline operations,
there is no present way to keep
military and private aircraft out
of the way all the time.
Many of the reported near
misses have involved military
and private planes brushing
close to airliners, with the for
mers' presence unsuspected by
air traffic control centers.
The future blueprint mapped
by White House air safety plan
ners would lump all military,
commercial and private planes
under a single control system.
But the target date for this blue
print is 1975 and as one vet
eran pilot puts it, "a lot of col
lisions can take place in the next
few years."
Grand Canyon accomplished
two mejor goals:
It galvanized Congress into
voting funds for which federal
aviation egencies end the air
lines hid been pleading for
years.
It also resulted in some badly-
needed government-industry co
operation in solving air traffic
problems.
Taught Soma Lessons
Like virtually every air crash,
it taught some lessons and drove
home old ones for which 128
persons had to die.
Like every air accident, it
cannot be summed up in mere
statistics. It touched hundreds
of homes with personal tragedy
that a short year has failed to
ease. The families of the dead
pilots, for example, are still liv
ing on the West Coast. They are
reasonably well-off financially,
although one of the companies
had to take up a collection to
pay off a co-pilot's mortgage.
Three damage suits totaling
a half-million dollars have been
filed agakist the government and
the two airlines. ' More are ex
pected, now that the CAB's final
report has been published.
The crash apparently had no j
affect on the public's confidence
in air travel. In the six months
following June 30, 1956. 13
168.000 persons flew domestic
airlines. That was about two
million more than in the enro
parable period the preceding
year.
Much of the wreckage of the
red and white Constellation and
the blue and silver DC-7 is still
at the scene. Investigators took
what they could for laboratoy
inspection, but some of the parte
were left where they fell on
that warm, hazy day in June.
Thry will stay thsre rusting
and forgotten mute testimony
to man's imperfections while
overhead will thunder airliaers I happened re ea ago gtue
on flights made safer by what ' day.
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Search Continues
For G,P. Youngster
Grants Pass W State police
and Josephine county deputies
continued their search today for
Cheryl Lea Johnston, 5, missing
since Saturday afternoon.
Some 1500 volunteer search
ers turned out Sunday but found
no trace of the blonde child with
the pony" tail who disappeared
while picnicking near the river.
The Grants Pass girl is the
daughter of Mrs. Maxine John
ston. She and 10 other children
were taken to Mattson park,
seven miles downstream from
Grants Pass, Saturday with the
permission of their parents.
Authorities said several of the
older children in the party were
splashing in the river about one
half mile downstream from its
confluence with the Applegate
river. Cheryl was picking up
pebbles and carrying them to a
picnic table from the river when
last seen.
Searchers turned out in droves
and at 2 a.m. Saturday there
were still an estimated 500 per
sons with flashlights and lan
terns combing the heavily wood
ed country along the river.
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