Archive Report
Archive Report
Incidenc and cause of air Disasters
Travel on scheduled airlines in the United States is safer today than at any time in the past, but the threat of larger death tolls is presented by the development of new high-speed planes with greater seating capacity and the steadily increasing congestion of the country's airways. Constant improvement of existing safety measures and frequent revision of government regulations to meet changing conditions will be required to hold air casualty rates at their present low levels.
Domestic scheduled carriers congratulated themselves last Feb. 12 on completion of a 12-month period without a single passenger fatality. During that period their planes flew 15 billion revenue passenger miles, averaging a landing or take-off every seven seconds. However, the fatality-free period had been ...