The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, November 30, 1979 Page: 7 of 24
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»et,
'The
Iho'ul-
Tiririt
-Debate Is
.«■
Spreading
By RALPH de TOLEDANO
" Copley News Service
^.WASHINGTON - The
' grounding of the DC-10 by
the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration raised eyebrow’s
and sent shudders down the
spines of frequent air tra-
, velers. Why- it was asked,
had the FAA waited for a
major disaster before it
began to check vigorously
. jin possible violations on its *
safety regulations? ‘ ••
That, question was never *
adequately answered. After
some headline-making by
'Congress, the'FAA and the
airlirrerremraed to the sta-
tus quo ante — and the
- pufcriirl was lulled into the
continuing belief that under
FAA supervision,' all air-
lines are equally safe. But is'
this true? ' »
It has taken Reason, a
magazine published in Santa
Barbara, Calif., to dig up
some statistics which should
give.the public disturbing-
thoughts about the qualify of.
air safety on the major’
trunk lines and'the smaller
. regional airlines. Reason’s
figures are derived from an
FAA publication, “Air Gar-
ner Enforcement History, .
Jin.. J974-Jan 1979" - ‘a ,
compilation of computer-
pnntout listings of FAA ac-
tions dgainst individual air-
■ lines. *
What Reason did was to
lake the total number of
violations and to divide
them by the number of reve-
nue passenger miles- flown
by each 'airline in 1978.
From this, it determined the
number of each airline's ,
safety violations per billion
., revenue passenger miles —
thereby arriving at a. basis
^ for comparison.
The Reason'study ^hows
an alarmingly wide gap.be-
tween‘the major trunk lines
and the regional airlines in
safety standards. For exam-
pie. National Airlines, at the
top of the list, was cited 2'.41
• times per; billion revenue,
■ passenger . miles < RPM),
whereas the most ‘ frequent
violator, Air New England,
was cited 388.89 times, per
' billion R?M. Most frequent-
ly cited of the major trunk
lines was Northwest, with
7.9 reports of violations per
billion RPM. Texas Interna-
tional, which is pushing into
the nationwide air travel
'business at cut rates,
' showed 30.21 reports of vio-
» lations per billion RPM.
When Reason’s reporter
. visited the FAA’s Los Ange-
les office to get the data on
which the magazine's study
" is. based, he was met by
considerable nervousness
about disclosure of the infor-
mation — and the magazine
charges that the FAA with-
holds comparative data in
order to "promote the sooth-
ing vjew that all airlines are
equally safe."' ‘
Says Editor Robert Poole.
"••The FAA has purposely-
cast a kind of security
: blanket over commercial
aviation.
"Insurance .companies
and consumers assume that
all airlines and all aircraft
are equally safe, because
they have the FAA’s contin-
uing seal of approval: In
fact, the figures we've come
. tip.#ith demonstrate shock-
ing differences in the degree
to which airlines observe
basic safety rules."
This comparison has be-
come essential now.that a
deregulated industry is. pro-
viding competitive service
between many major cities.
(The passenger should have
a right to know which airline
has the better safety record
— much as today he knows
which cigarettes have the
least tar.
The magazine does not go
into other comparative fac-
tors in air travel, not con-
- nected with safety — but
this kind of study should be
undertaken by some en-
terprising investigative
reporter.
. For example, Eastern Air
Lines’ shuttle service be-
tween New York and Wash-
ington, which does a land-
_ office business, grows more
expensive and more shoddy
with each passing day.
Recently the 50-minute
Right took me four hours -
two hours standing in line,
half an hour on the ground
- in the plane, one hour of
flying time, and another
half-hour on;1 the ground at
the Washington end. Half an
hpur m line waiting to board
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, November 30, 1979, newspaper, November 30, 1979; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1065642/m1/7/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.