Word: majors
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...airports to do a better job at screening. In January 1996 it warned airline and airport managers at major airports across the country that there were serious problems not only with airline screening processes but also with the airports' security procedures. For example, O'Hare was in 16th place among 19 big international airports. The FAA said its people watched 1,500 bags go through checkpoints, and saw only one opened for closer inspection...
Time and again, my office uncovered practices that would shock the public: sloppy inspections of planes, perfunctory review of pilots, lax oversight of airline procedures, disregard for bogus airplane parts, sievelike security at airports, antiquated air-traffic-control systems. Only with a major crash, only with people dead and sobbing survivors filling television screens, does the FAA step up to the plate and make changes. I found the FAA's complacency toward accidents difficult to accept...
...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...
...pinpoint the reason for the disaster, either. [It was later found that the fire was apparently caused by dangerous oxygen generators loaded into the cargo bay without being carefully handled according to regulations.] But the tragedy would expose what the FAA had long known: ValuJet was primed for a major crash; its maintenance was slipshod; it had an accident rate 14 times as poor as those of its peers; its managers were out of their league; and the FAA's own inspectors had wanted ValuJet shut down months before the Everglades disaster...
...next day deputy assistant inspector general Larry Weintrob and two other officials from my office walked into the Atlanta office of the FAA. There was only one major question: What is the FAA doing about ValuJet? Weintrob pressed for details about the recent spate of accidents. The reply stunned him. Confused, the FAA inspectors asked, What spate? The inspectors admitted they didn't know how many accidents there had been. Taken aback, Weintrob and his team laid out details: In its short life, Valujet had had more than its share of accidents and mishaps. Its planes repeatedly overshot runways...