In 1946, U.S. scheduled airlines carried 14,000,000 passengers a total of 7,000,000,000 milesa record. They also killed more passengers than ever before: 75 in the U.S., 4 overseas,* in eight crashes. From these figures the air passenger of 1947 could take this small comfort: it worked out at one death for 60,000,000 passenger-miles. And this was much better than in previous years.
Even railroads, which once boasted of a year's operation with but a single passenger killed, found wartime wear & tear on equipment, compounded by employe negligence, showing in the fatal statistics: in seven accidents,...