Nation: Death over San Diego

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Yet there is no way, of course, for any system of sophisticated electronics or rigid regulations to keep a foolhardy private pilot from endangering his own or other lives by flying in an alcoholic haze or breaking a safety rule. For that matter taped cockpit conversations have demonstrated all too much inattention to duty among commercial airline pilots as well And as last week's disaster shows so graphically, the element of mere chance in course, timing and speed can doom even the most experienced pilots, as well as the many "souls on board" whose lives ended so innocently on a sunny morning over San Diego.