Word: inspector
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...passenger bill of rights, the major U.S. carriers made 12 specific commitments aimed at making air travel better. Among them: notifying passengers in a timely manner of delays, cancellations or diversions; and meeting customers' essential needs during long on-aircraft delays. Last week the Department of Transportation's Inspector General reported that the airlines had failed to fulfill many of the pledges. Among other things the report concluded that the airlines frequently gave "inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable" information and often failed to offer the lowest possible fare; and that fewer than half the carriers had customer-service contingency plans...
...after 12 months, with 40 members from the DOT inspector general's office working on the case, the diligent watchdogs have their report: Some things, like late-baggage delivery and tending to passengers' essential needs during long on-runway delays, are getting better. But that which irks flyers most - the delays themselves, and the way they're reported to the stranded - are still a big problem...
...years ago, threatened with a clampdown by an angry Congress, airlines promised to improve their customer service and reliability. Yet within the next few weeks, the Transportation Department's inspector general is expected to report that the airlines have failed to live up to all their pledges. Even though their scheduling patterns and booming growth contribute to the mess, it's not all the airlines' fault. Bigger solutions are needed. Next month the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will convene a national summit to ask what can be done to solve the crisis. Right now, we offer five proposals...
...Saturday morning in June 1998, homicide Inspector Jose Afonso Coelho of the Lisbon police is notified that the nude body of a teenage girl has been found on a nearby beach. Along with Carlos Pinto, his new partner, Coelho begins to investigate and quickly uncovers some interesting complications. The victim, Catarina Sousa Oliveira, was the daughter of a powerful, well-connected local attorney and his second wife and had already, despite her tender years, demonstrated a precocious fondness for sex and drugs. In fact, she had recently seduced her mother's lover and arranged the tryst so that the mother...
From this point on, Wilson's novel careers along on two tracks--the present investigation in Lisbon and past Nazi activities in Portugal--that slowly but inexorably converge. Inspector Coelho, of course, knows nothing about Klaus Felsen or his murky role on behalf of the Nazis, so the reader is always several steps ahead of the fictional detective. But they are only baby steps, because the connection between Felsen's story and the murder of Catarina Oliveira remains tantalizingly unclear for much of the novel...