Adventures of Link: Safe on a Plane?

April 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM | by pbb | 0 Comments

After last week's Congressional smackdown, all our planes are safe, right? Uh, how does "relatively" sound? And we thought James Oberstar, inset, would have this all handled by now!

Peter Greenberg just posted a recent back-and-forth he had with an FAA inspector in Chicago:

He said, "My assignment is to inspect all the planes flown by Mesa Airlines."

I said to him, "Well, don't you guys also inspect go! in Hawaii?"

He said "Yeah."

I said, "When was the last time you were in Hawaii?"

"Well, I haven't gotten around to it yet."

In the aftermath of that FAA testimony to Congress, the agency has removed its top flight safety regulator in Texas. He's been "reassigned" according to The Dallas Morning News.

The same guy has just gotten a letter from three congressmen accusing him of supplying:

Inaccurate and misleading information about whether aviation safety inspectors and managers...were ordered to conduct special meetings with all airlines, repair stations and other regulated entities.

If that's not scary enough for ya, the Wall Street Journal has discovered that jet engines have been icing up--and shutting down in-flight. Fortunately this is one problem the FAA knows about and is already investigating. The agency has proposed new rules this week to make sure nothing bad happens. Maybe that'll help the FAA's cred?

Related Stories:
· Whistleblowers, the FAA, and "Airworthiness" [Peter Greenberg]
· FAA Removes Top Regulator in Texas [DMN]
· Dems Say FAA Officials Misled Congress [AP, via BusinessWeek]
· Regulators Grapple with Engine-Shutdown Peril [WSJ]
· Is NY's New Aviation "Czar" in over Her Head? [Elliott]

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Tags: Planegate / James Oberstar / Peter Greenberg / Airlines / → All Tags