Aeronautics: Error of Judgment

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¶ The U. S. S. Akron was in "excellent structural condition" when she took off April 3.

¶Her officers & crew were skilled, competent.

¶Weather forecasts justified the takeoff.

¶Captain Frank Carey McCord "committed an error in judgment" in not striking a course which would have kept the ship out of the storm centre.

¶But ''everything within the knowledge of Commander McCord at the time his decision was made might have pointed to his plan of action being justifiable. Certainly we know that many conflicting considerations had to be set one against the other, and what subsequent events show to have been an erroneous decision does not, in the opinion of the court, justify a condemnation without more information of the considerations upon which the plan of action was based. This information was lost with the ship."

¶There is nothing to prove whether the Akron might have survived the storm had she been flying higher.

Thus inconclusively the Naval Court of Inquiry into the Akron disaster delivered its opinion last week. It satisfied no one. In approving the report, Admiral William V. Pratt, chief of naval operations, rebuked the court for inconsistency in blaming Captain McCord in one breath and excusing him in the next. More significant was a statement by Rear Admiral Ernest J. King, chief of the bureau of aeronautics: "In their present state of design, construction and operation . . . airships should avoid bad weather areas."

Secretary of the Navy Swanson transmitted the court's opinion to the Joint Congressional Committee which was to begin taking testimony this week. The Navy Department last week announced that the airship base at Sunnyvale, Calif, shall be named Moffett Field.