But that shouldn't be a problem because "cheap" doesn't necessarily mean unsafe, right? That brings us to this airline safety story out of London-Stansted:
A Ryanair flight was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing after damage to the cockpit windscreen endangered the plane. Britain of course has some of the world's most hyperactive airline safety officials, so it's difficult to understand how the problem wasn't caught on the ground and how the plane wasn't grounded for safety reasons.
It turns out that the problem with the window was indeed noticed before takeoff. But instead of canceling the flight, someone had technicians fix it with—and we're not making this up—tape. They sent an airplane loaded to capacity with almost 200 people into the air, held together by tape. Because profits are important.
Now in fairness, there's no evidence that Ryanair will actually try to save money by strategically opting for tape instead of bolts on their planes. But they've already done that once this week, so hopefully someone will be keeping an eye on them.
[Photo: Moviefan / Wiki Commons]
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