One-Third of an Inch

A fitting that should have been 12/32s of an inch thick, but which was carelessly machined down to less than 2/32s caused the glider tragedy at St. Louis three weeks ago (TIME, Aug. 9). So announced the War Department last week, after suspending two civilian inspectors and grounding about 100 gliders like the one that killed St. Louis' mayor, the president of the glider-making company and eight others.

Probably responsible: some lax machinist who cut the part freehand and bored too deep, perhaps because his employer, a smalltime subcontractor, lacked a jig or automatic stop mechanism. An overrushed inspector tossed out some of the faulty parts; some he passed without tests. The fitting joined the right wing strut to the fuselage. Once it was welded into place, its weakness was hidden from final assembly inspections. But when the glider cut loose from the tow plane on its maiden flight, new stresses snapped the too-thin steel. The craft plummeted 1,500 feet.

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