§ 3.8 p.m.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHMy Lords, I beg to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any further statement to make regarding the Hermes air liner which made a forced landing in North-West Africa.]
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE CO-ORDINATION OF TRANSPORT, FUEL AND POWER (LORD LEATHERS)My Lords, as noble Lords will be aware. Her Majesty's Government have received the French Government's Report on this accident and have caused it to be published. A representative of the Chief Inspector of Accidents of the Ministry of Civil Aviation took part in the French Inquiry and following his preliminary report of the circumstances of the accident, which cast doubt on the competence of the captain and navigating officer, it was decided to suspend their licences in the interests of safety of the travelling public. The French Government's Report, the findings of which Her Majesty's Government accept, confirms these doubts. These two officers have, therefore, been informed that their licences will be restored only when they have satisfied the Ministry of Civil Aviation's examiners as to their knowledge of the navigational subjects which are included in the syllabuses for their respective licences.
The circumstances of this accident raise some doubt as to the adequacy of the existing regulations governing the carriage of flight navigators on long-distance flights. The matter is being discussed with aircraft operators and with pilots' and navigators' organisations to see whether these regulations should be made 835 more exacting. In the meantime, to safeguard the interests of the travelling public, a requirement has been made for the holder of a flight navigator's licence to be included in the crew of aircraft on the Tripoli-Kano route, thus anticipating one of the recommendations in the Report. The other recommendations are being actively considered.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his full reply, and I am also grateful for the action which Her Majesty's Government have taken, in view, as he has quite rightly said, of the interests of the travelling public, because, unfortunately, there were good grounds for suspecting the competence of certain of the officers of this aircraft. We now await the consultations which the noble Lord, the Secretary of State, is having with interested parties. I feel certain that, following the action he has already taken, he will pursue this matter with vigour, so that the travelling public may have all the safeguards to which they are entitled. I think we can close the matter now, perhaps, with an expression of sympathy with the relatives of the unfortunate members of the crew who lost their lives.
§ LORD OGMOREMy Lords, I am not quite so satisfied as my noble friend, because I am a little confused with reference to the answer given by the Secretary of State. I understood him to say that in view of this accident certain regulations will be made for the carriage of a flight navigator on certain flights. I have not, of course, seen the report of the French Commission, but I understand that such a navigator was carried on this flight and in fact did not carry out his duties properly. But he was there. The captain also did not carry out his duties properly; but he was there. How then does the new measure proposed by the noble Lord help the situation?
§ LORD LEATHERSMy Lords, I am afraid that I have not with me the exact information, but the inference to be drawn from all the information I have is that there was not one of these navigators on the 'plane in question.
§ LORD OGMOREThe Secretary of State must really make up his mind on this. He has stated that the navigator had been dismissed by B.O.A.C., but if 836 there was no flight navigator on board how could he have been dismissed by B.O.A.C.? It is no good the noble Lord coming here without understanding the answer he gives.