HC Deb 18 February 1948 vol 447 cc1147-8
29. Major Vernon

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation if he will inform the House of the number of aircraft accidents which have occurred in each of the three aircraft corporations in relation to miles flown over any convenient period.

31. Mr. Ward

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation the number of passenger miles flown by each of the three Corporations in the last 18 months; and the number of fatal accidents to fare-paying passengers per million miles flown by each Corporation.

Mr. Lindgren

The provisional estimate for the revenue passenger miles flown by British Overseas Airways Corporation, British European Airways Corporation and British South American Airways Corporation in the 18 months up to 31st January, 1948, is, to the nearest million, 432 million, 137 million and 66 million miles respectively; and the number of fatal accidents to fare-paying passengers per million passenger miles flown has been 0.025, nil and 0.88 respectively. The number of aircraft accidents involving fatalities during the same period per million miles flown is 0.09, 0.07 and 0.66 respectively.

Mr. Mikardo

Would my hon. Friend agree that in the running of an air line it is much more important to ensure the safety of passengers than to make profits? In framing future British civil aviation policy will my hon. Friend take into account the correlation in the figures which he has just given between the making of profits and the proneness to accidents?

Mr. Lindgren

I think it is well known to the House that my noble Friend has made safety the first consideration in civil air operations.

Mr. Ward

To what does the hon. Gentleman attribute the fact that the accident rate of B.S.A.A.C. does not compare favourably with the other two Corporations? What action is he taking to reduce the accident rate of that Corporation?

Mr. Lindgren

I do not think that the high accident rate is unrelated to the fact that the operations of the Corporation were very near to the bone. I said earlier that my noble Friend had instituted an Air Safety Board inquiry into the general operational standards of the Corporation. The result of that inquiry has been submitted to the Board of the Corporation, which is acting upon it at the moment.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Can the hon. Gentleman say what he means by operations being "near to the bone"?

Mr. Lindgren

The inference has been made with some justification, I think, that training and maintenance standards were not as high as they should have been.

Mr. Rankin

While I appreciate that the policy laid down by the Minister is "Safety first," will my hon. Friend recognise that so long as aircraft take off and land at between 90 and 100 miles per hour safety cannot be guaranteed? It can only be guaranteed when the airframes of the machines are crash proof?

Mr. Speaker

These two Questions asked about the number of accidents, and we are now getting on to genera] questions of safety.