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James C. Green It's outrageous the airlines are having to put up the pure harassment that the government has foisted upon them in the last weeks! Their airplanes are perfectly safe; there has never ever been a problem caused by the MD-80 wiring bundles the FAA is claiming are questionably unsafe. And for the FAA to impose totally unrealistic expectations for compliance with inspection edicts is completely irresponsible.
These inspections could be done at night while aircraft are laying over between flights. It is completely unfair to expect them to be done within a matter of hours! The government is embarrassed there may have been some leniency in the FAA's oversight of these inspections and so they are making up for it by punishing the airlines and drawing attention away from their mistakes. Congressman James Oberstar, who is chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, is largely responsible for this debacle because of his uber-fixation on safety and desire to make the government appear to be doing its job. But the airlines are already bleeding red from skyrocketing jet fuel prices. (Continental Airlines will pay almost $2 billion more this year for fuel alone than last year!) and reeling from a slumping economy. The cancellation of several thousand flights and the stranding of tens of thousands of angry passengers in recent weeks by multiple airlines is a further staggering blow at a critical time. Four U.S. airlines have announced their bankruptcy liquidations in the past week, and more are likely to follow. The airline industry is one of the most regulated of any in the business world. They are surrounded by government organizations who have no profit incentive whatever. And right in the middle of all this regulatory control and magnifying-glass scrutiny the airlines must stay in the black to survive. It's almost impossible with no cooperation from the Department of Transportation. What are we going to do -- drive all the airlines out of business, and go back to taking the bus or train?! And if their profits decline to the point of barely existing because of unrealistic government demands they likely will have to start cutting corners somewhere else to survive, which could actually affect safety. Flying is the safest it's ever been because of responsible action and disciplined procedural compliance by the airlines already! Let's encourage the government to work with them -- not against them -- to keep it that way.
• Captain James C. Green, a retired Continental Airlines pilot, lives in Cedar Hills. |
