Advice and Descent

When Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, 48 U.S. Senators boarded a special jet and flew to his funeral Mass in New York City. Then, in January 1971, 39 Senators climbed onto another jet and flew to Senator Richard Russell's funeral in Georgia. The weather was foggy, and the Air Force plane carrying the Senators tried twice to land, swooping by the runway at an altitude of 90 feet.

Had the plane crashed on either the New York or Georgia flight, the Senate would have been practically destroyed as a political institution. Should a majority of Senators die, the Senate could not even legally function. The prospect so disturbed Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield that he prepared a private memo on the problem. "Often the necessary precautions are not being taken to protect the Senate as a viable institution," he wrote. "Too often a significant percentage of the Senate, even up to a majority, is permitted to fly in a single aircraft. This is an unacceptable risk for the country to take."

Mansfield issued orders to the Air Force that thereafter no more than twelve Senators might fly on the same plane at the same time. Thus last week, as 36 Senators left to attend the funeral of Louisiana's Allen Ellender, they were dispersed on five separate flights for the trip to New Orleans.

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