Word: snafus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Aloha episode is only the most dramatic of mechanical snafus that have ranged from clogged fuel filters to rusted-through floors to cracked turbine blades. Last month the FAA launched a special inspection of all jets operated by Continental and Eastern airlines in response to recurring accusations that their parent, Texas Air, the largest U.S. airline company, was cutting corners on maintenance because of its financial troubles. Even the reliability of new jets came under assault last month, when two foreign carriers, Japan Air Lines and British Airways, complained strongly about malfunctions on freshly assembled Boeing 747s and 767s...
...little secrets" of the airline industry are out in the open and stirring unprecedented public outrage. In the increasingly overcrowded skies, snafus that threaten safety are on the rise, and everyday service is deteriorating. As more than 100 million U.S. travelers take to the air during this year's peak summer travel season, the Federal Government is recording a surging number of delayed flights, near midair collisions and air-traffic- control errors. The airlines, on the defensive as never before, are scrambling to improve conditions in the hope of easing a growing indignation in Congress and thus heading...
Additional problems, at least in the performance I saw, were caused by technical snafus. The music, for instance, was much too soft and occasionally stopped playing while the actors were still dancing...
Some of the longest, most tortured consumer stories involve home delivery. When Tony and Sandra Cantafio of Redondo Beach, Calif., bought a bed last October, they had to wait four weeks for it to arrive because of lost paperwork and other snafus. The result for Cantafio was an aching back from sleeping on the sofa. But there was another pain: to get the bed finally, Cantafio had to take an entire day off from his job as an aerospace executive because the deliverymen refused to predict what time they would arrive at his home...
Transient anxieties also nag at him from reports of snafus at the statue's original dedication. In 1886 it rained on their parade. "If it drizzles," says Wolper, "we all get umbrellas. If it's a hurricane, we go the following evening." At the first ceremony, the signal to drop the French tricolor veil from Liberty's face set guns to booming and crowds to cheering during a speech by New York Senator William Evarts. Wolper's nightmare: the President hits the button to light the statue, but nothing happens. So a $250,000 backup system is in place...