Word: aircrafting
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...wanted peace with the Inspector General and the NTSB, but it wanted harmony by persuading us to lay off, to leave its officials to do their jobs as they always had. Planes are not falling out of the sky, the FAA kept saying. Aircraft are not crashing. Stated over and over, this agency mantra was a blanket justification for business as usual...
...Twenty-seven people had been killed, and 40 planes had been damaged or destroyed. In those years, the NTSB repeatedly asked the FAA to set new rules, but the FAA refused. It would be three years more before the FAA ruled that the separation between heavy and lighter aircraft should be increased...
...they are, and the danger is growing. In one meeting I attended, the FAA said that shortly after the turn of the century, aircraft accidents will increase dramatically. The officials [who were making the case for increased FAA funding] said matter-of-factly that if demand for flights increases at present rates and if growth of discount airlines keeps up at the current pace, we can expect a major crash every week or so after the turn of the century...
...responsible for certifying and then continually examining aircraft design, airline operations, airplanes, pilots, mechanics, repair stations, aircraft parts--essentially every stage of commercial aviation. The agency does this with one basic tool: inspections. The nearly 3,000 FAA inspectors are the main link between the government and the airlines, and it is their job to make sure the carriers operate within the law. They are supposed to stay on top of the airlines, verifying that planes and pilots are in shape to fly. It's a hands-on job, one that pays from $40,000 to $70,000 a year...
Inspectors did an abysmal job of examining the nation's aircraft operators. Countless required or recommended inspections were never conducted, while others were carried out so perfunctorily that they were meaningless, and still more revealed problems that went unreported just to spare the airlines any inconvenience. Inspections of planes, pilots, mechanics and repair stations were so unreliable as to be virtually useless. Fortunately, most of the time savvy and diligent airlines filled the gap. But it was inevitable that the inspection process would eventually break down at an airline like ValuJet, creating the perfect conditions for a deadly crash...