Aircraft Safety
Passengers recently collected at airports around the nation waiting for a flight while American Airlines commit a crash program of safety repairs that should have been done long before. This chaos closely followed the embarrassment suffered by Southwest Airlines. Aviation is a safe method of transportation but is unforgiving. The lack of regulatory control over such issues as safety inspections of airliners is shocking but typical of the cozy relationship between the Bush administration and industry. The odd-man out is the consumer.
Not only were the airlines only required to voluntarily report safety issues, the FAA allowed some reporting to slide altogether. Only low level FAA inspectors would receive reports. As a result of this news the FAA is instituting steps that one would have thought to have already been standard procedure. Among those steps is forcing high-ranking airline personnel to submit reports to the FAA of safety problems or compliance issues filed voluntarily by airline employees. In the past, lower-level airline workers could make such disclosures.
Transportation officials said yesterday that new rules will also require senior-level FAA officials to receive those reports to ensure that rogue inspectors are not being too lenient on the airlines.
The last line of defense for consumers is the right to trial by jury. Without the empowerment of trial, industries providing products and services can skate. It is silly to think that deterrence can be left to regulators. Both remedy for injury and deterrence for violation of safety standards must remain with the courts and juries. We must stop the insurance and corporate powers from destroying our Constitutional right to trial by jury.
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