An assistant secretary of defense believes airplane crashes, resulting from pilot failure, are usually due to illness on the part of the pilot.
"And as you know, the journals of aviation medicine say 60 per cent of all airplane accidents result from pilot failure," added Dr. Frank B. Berry, Washington, D. C, assistant secretary of defense in charge of health and medicine and a member of the board of regents of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Berry said this means something must be done, not only to determine causes of pilot illness but to counteract these causes. About a year ago, he added, a committee was set up to study accidents in the air—a committee composed of Americans, Britons and Canadians.
"What we do now is to examine the pilot right after the accident," added the surgeon, an outstanding delegate at the sectional meeting of the American College of Surgeons, now in session at the Roosevelt hotel. PHOTO: RELAXING BETWEEN SESSIONS of the American College of Surgeons sectional meeting at the Roosevelt hotel Tuesday are Dr. Carl A. Moyer (left), St. Louis, Mo., head of the department of surgery of Washington university med-ical school, and Dr. Frank B. Berry, Washington, D. C, assistant secretary of defense in charge of health and medicine. Both addressed the meeting Tuesday.
