Aerial Traffic Cops Needed?

Bad enough was the fact that an Army bomber and an American Airlines plane had collided 9,000 ft. over California's San Gorgonio Pass and that twelve had lost their lives when the airliner, its tail assembly shorn off, had spun to earth and burned (TIME, Nov. 2). Far worse was the reason why.

In Los Angeles tall, blond Army Pilot Lieut. William N. Wilson, 25, met his old friend Airliner Co-Pilot Louis F. Reppert Jr. "It was agreed," said the report of a Congressional investigating committee, "that Lieut. Wilson would attempt to time his take-off [next day] from Long Beach to conform with the time of the airliner at Burbank so that they could meet some place in the vicinity of San Gorgonio Pass." The plan clicked; at the rendezvous Lieut. Wilson waggled his plane's wings in greeting. He passed in front of the airliner.

Then: "In order to get closer ... to see his friend, he again turned toward the airliner. He saw he was too close . . . and made a violent turn ... to avoid a collision, but was unable to do so." The airliner went up sharply, its rudder was knocked off; it went into a spin.

The airliner was not violating the established practice of flying at 9,000 ft. Whether the bomber was violating any rule was a matter of conjecture: bombers like Lieut. Wilson's are not supposed to fly above 3,500 ft., but no one ever has specified whether 3,500 ft. means above sea level or above terrain. Lieut. Wilson was placed under military arrest, charged with manslaughter.

The three-man Congressional investigating committee decided last week to make good come out of the tragedy of skylarking with the lives of other people. Oklahoma's Representative Jack Nichols, grimly determined to formulate a definite set of rules for military and commercial flying, subpoenaed airline executives for a special hearing. His colleague, California's Carl Hinshaw, said: "We must provide for the control of navigable air space, just as we now supervise the use of navigable waters."

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