Shockingly Obvious

Over Georgia's Muscogee County Airport, nine miles northeast of Columbus, a twin-engined plane circled and headed in for a landing. At the controls sat Delta Air Lines operations vice president, George R. Gushing, 48, a veteran pilot. Gushing and seven other Delta men (including Legal Adviser Lindley W. Camp, 52, longtime political crony of the late Gene Talmadge) were inspecting a network of newly acquired Georgia-Texas routes.

But the Delta plane was not alone in the sunny morning sky over the field. In for a landing, too, came a small private plane piloted by a Columbus beer dealer, Joseph C. Fussell, 42. Before either pilot saw the other--or had time to do anything about it--the small plane drove at right angles into the big one's tail. Only 30 feet off the ground, the two planes bucked up like broncos, then crashed together on to runway No. 5, burst into bright flame. Everyone in both planes was killed.

It was the first major U.S. airline crash in 14 weeks, and Delta's first since 1935. What accounted for it? The reason was shockingly obvious: the Muscogee County Airport, like some 300 other U.S. airports regularly used by commercial aircraft, has no control tower to regulate landings. The Civil Aeronautics Administration has barely enough funds to operate towers at 117 of the nation's larger airports (minimum annual cost: $15,000 each). The Georgia crash might help get additional funds from Congress to operate more.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.