Prophetic Skipper

Day before the four-engined, Bermuda-bound Cavalier went down to a crash landing on the Atlantic last January, her Cambridge-educated skipper, thin-faced Captain Marmaduke R. Alderson, wrote a troubled and prophetic report to his employer, Imperial Airways Limited, of London:

"During the past few weeks, I have been very concerned over the unsatisfactory functioning of Cavalier's engines. . . . I make this separate report in the hope that the Engineering Department may give serious attention to the problem. The essential fact is that . . . it is impossible to maintain the power output from any engine, and there is no doubt in my mind that the principal cause of this is ice-formation on the butterfly throttle. . . . The carburettor heating systems . . . have been checked repeatedly for correct functioning but it seems that they fail inherently."

Last week the British Air Ministry made public its official findings on the crash in which three of Cavalier's company were lost, the other ten rescued after a precarious ten hours in a stormy sea. As everybody had surmised, Cavalier was forced down when her engines failed because of carburetor ice, to prevent which her engine builders had failed to provide adequate heating equipment although U. S. designers have long had the problem whipped.

Imperial appeared to have come to grief through smug blundering by its directing personnel. The Air Ministry recorded that Skipper Alderson had reported trouble through carburetor icing as early as last October, had told of one flight in which he had to pump the throttles for three and a half hours to break away ice.

His warnings got no results, although a remedy was at hand in any U. S. engine. Pilots of two Empire boats flying European routes had reported the same trouble. "Captain Alderson," said the Air Ministry's report, "was disturbed that the gravity of the situation was not more fully realized. . . . These incidents . . . resulted in some research being immediately put in hand by Imperial Airways. . . ."

That Skipper Alderson was not to blame for what happened after his warnings was an obvious finding, and the Air Ministry made it. Strangely enough the report found the ship airworthy, made no specific criticism of Imperial's management. But when Imperial sends out a new flying boat on the run, revamped to fit the Air Ministry's recommendations, it will follow generally the practices observed by Pan American Airways on the same line.

In addition to being protected by effective carburetor heaters, passengers will be instructed in fastening life belts, since most of Cavalier's passengers left without them or carried them in their hands. Passengers will also be strapped in seats on takeoffs and landings,* life rafts with rockets, emergency radio and provisions will be carried.

Prize ray of sunshine in the Air Ministry's findings: felicitation of Captain Alderson for heading doggedly for Bermuda, once he was in trouble, instead of turning back to Port Washington. The reason: the water in the Gulf Stream, where he came down, was warm; it was much colder back toward New York.

* Imperial's present printed instruction: "Lap straps. . . . Use is optional. . . . Company recommends that they shall be used . . . during take-offs and alighting. . . . If you wish to use . . . ask the Flight Clerk. . . ."

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