Word: crashing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even if this particular tragedy can be characterized as human error, however, the crash has laid bare ValuJet's uneven safety record. Since its start-up in October 1993, the airline has had more than 284 "service difficulties," according to the FAA, such as a plane rolling off the runway because of worn brakes. In the first five weeks of 1996, the carrier experienced four "incidents," as the FAA terms them: a hard landing and tail strike, a nose wheel that strayed off the runway when the crew could not see taxi lights, an aircraft that skidded...
That opinion was backed up, after the crash, by Department of Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, who professed satisfaction with ValuJet's zealous attention to regulators' concerns, a stance echoed by some of his colleagues. Not everyone agreed. DOT Inspector General Mary Schiavo, a presidential appointee who acts as a watchdog for all the agency's programs, including the FAA, ruffled feathers by publicly declaring she would not fly ValuJet. Perhaps she was familiar with the FAA report issued just nine days before the crash and first published by the Chicago Tribune last week. According to that document, the low-cost...
...long term. "In the big scheme of things, accidents happen, there's a lot of fanfare, it blows off, and the company goes on," says Kit Darby, president of Air Inc., an Atlanta information service for professional pilots. Although Air Florida eventually went under after a 1982 crash in Washington, Darby believes that ValuJet, with its firmer financial footing, may well absorb this setback. "Historically people don't think about safety," says Darby. "They want to go when they want to go at a cheap price...
...other low-cost carriers are already feeling the shock waves. Mark McDonald, president and CEO of Nations Air Express, a 15-month-old start-up based in Smyrna, Georgia, says the ValuJet crash has had "a tremendous impact" on his business. "Our bookings have been dropping about 40% a day [since the crash]," he says. "There is a lot of concern out there, and it's not getting any better." Jordan, who last week appointed retired Air Force General James B. Davis as ValuJet's new "safety czar," remains convinced, though, that his company--and passengers--can again fly high...
...dramatic anomie. Stephen Frears' The Van, third in the series that includes The Commitments and The Snapper, is a noisy mess, with shouting in lieu of wit and brawls stunt-doubling for character conflict. But this pub/pug violence was mild next to the atrocities in David Cronenberg's Crash, the festival's mandatory annual outrage. This terminally creepy movie, from the J.G. Ballard novel about people who get sexual thrills from car carnage, could have been a moving meditation on auto-eroticism. The kinks are there but the pace is lethargic, as if the film were moving on Detroit...