The Creeping Sickness

The strange wave of "sickness" among pilots that has forced Eastern Air Lines to cancel 90% of its nights was spreading to other lines last week. At a meeting in a motel across from New York's Idlewild International Airport, Eastern Air Lines pilots asked Pan American and TWA pilots to develop sympathetic symptoms that would keep them from flying planes too. By week's end, Pan American was forced to cancel flights as more than 102 pilots called in to say they were ill,. When Pan American flight supervisors telephoned reserve crews, they got a standard answer: "Sorry, I just took a drink, and legally am not allowed to fly for 24 hours." TWA pilots are expected to become ill this week.

Collision Course. The spreading sickness has brought on a showdown in the bitter feud between Clarence N. Sayen, boss of the gold-plated Air Line Pilots Association and Federal Aviation Agency Chief Elwood ("Pete") Quesada (TIME, June 20). What sparked the showdown is a dispute over where the FAA inspectors sit in the new jetliners. Quesada says they must have the forward observer's seat (across from the flight engineer's seat) so that they can see if the pilot is obeying FAA rules. But Sayen maintains that that seat is reserved for the third pilot, issued an A.L.P.A. order that no pilot should fly with an FAA inspector in that seat. Sayen fears that if a pilot does not sit in the seat, the airlines, which put on a third pilot after a strike 18 months ago, have a strong argument for saying that he is not really necessary, a view that FAA supports.

When Eastern Air Lines pilots obeyed the union order, Eastern went into a federal court and won a temporary restraining order. The pilots got around it by staying away from work on the grounds of "sickness." TWA, American Airlines and Pan American got a restraining order from a federal district court in Chicago, requiring pilots to comply with the FAA order. But the pilots were not happy. Growled one captain to an FAA inspector: "I don't want you here at all, but we're under a court order, so sit down."

The Strategy: Harassment. Sayen's strategy is to keep the airlines in turmoil until the public becomes angry and starts to blame Pete Quesada. Sayen figures that the public will side with the pilots rather than a Government agency. The trouble with this reasoning is that 1) the pilots lost much public support by their strike at Christmas against American, the nation's biggest airline (TIME, Jan. 5, 1959), and 2) Quesada is only bearing down on the pilots to eliminate carelessness, make flying safer. Sayen has also laid down this week a strike deadline against National Airlines, and is ready to strike Northwest Airlines over wages.

To try to clip Quesada's power, Sayen has persuaded California Democratic Senator Clair Engle and Mississippi Democratic Representative John Bell Williams to introduce identical bills in the Senate and House. They would give the Civil Aeronautics Board the right to review all the FAA rulings, in effect making the FAA as slow and cumbersome as the CAB. The bills also call for public hearings before the FAA can suspend a pilot's license. Cries Sayen: "The law which concentrates such power in one man that he can, by hastily conceived, dictatorial, unnecessary and arbitrary actions, provoke such chaos while attempting to pass it off under the guise of safety should be changed."

But top airline officials feel that Quesada's firm hand has helped make U.S. aviation smoother and better-run. Says Eastern Air Lines President Malcolm MacIntyre: "A.L.P.A. used to be one of the loudest complainers about not being able to get decisions under the old setup. Now it wants FAA decisions to be subject to CAB review. That's a sure way to get no decisions at all."

In Chicago this week Federal Judge Julius Miner has ordered Sayen to explain why such a basically healthy group as the pilots should suddenly suffer so many illnesses. He advised Sayen to be armed with medical affidavits to back up his case.

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