Overhead Law

Lakes & Streams. When New Jersey's State Board of Commerce & Navigation ruled that aircraft must not alight on Jersey's inland waters, loud was the protest of the men who build, sell and operate seaplanes and amphibians (TIME, Sept. 29). H. Stewart McDonald Jr., counsel for the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, and John J. Redfield for Curtiss-Wright Corp. confronted the Board last fortnight, wrung from it a modification of the ruling in principle: Instead of being a blanket restriction, the rule shall apply only to Lake Hopatcong. Each application for water landings elsewhere will be considered on its merits. A member of the Board said that "companies and private owners of hydroplanes should develop their own inland bodies of water rather than seek the use of natural lakes and streams."

Prisons. Foresighted persons suppose that criminals will soon learn to use airplanes as an aid to prison breaks. Unless actually caught in an overt criminal act, a pilot would be liable only for violation of the Federal regulations against low flying (minimum, 1,000 ft. over cities, or towns or congested areas; 500 ft. elsewhere) and the dropping of objects from aircraft (maximum penalty: $500 fine and revocation of license). Last week the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce considered the problem "unofficially" presented to it by a recent conference of prison wardens at Columbus, Ohio. Possible solution: creation of "safe zones," barred to aircraft, over all penal institutions.

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