This week witnessed American Airlines' PR meltdown as the megacarrier canceled thousands of flights due to safety concerns. So you're single and stuck in a hub city far from friends and family... what's a seasoned traveler to do? Make the best of it by making a connection at one of these national hot spots, even in your most wrinkled suit.
In Dallas: Try not to stare at Twisted Root Burger Company (2615 Commerce St.) which serves its juicy hunks of meat with in-house root beer. More Dallas Missed Connections.
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?"
OMG, they finally stopped talking about FAA oversights and supposedly unsafe planes on Capitol Hill. Now the airline reps can skip out and enjoy the National Cherry Blossom Festival instead of the inside of the Rayburn House Office Building.
Leading the charge today was Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chair Rep. James Oberstar who thinks the airlines and the FAA have gotten a little too cozy. That's led to, he thinks,
The most egregious lapses of safety I've seen in 23 years.
FAA whistleblowers also spoke, saying Southwest Airlines neglected to remove from service planes that needed further safety inspections. The carrier's chairman, who was also in DC today, disagreed that his airline did anything wrong:
Regulatory non-compliance and being unsafe are two different things.
As always, we'll toss in our boilerplate footnote that commercial flight is one of the safest modes of transportation ever created.
It was just less than a month ago that CNN called out Southwest Airlines for irregular safety inspections on its 737s. Since then, Planegate has continued, and even spread to just about every other airline.
United is the latest carrier to have trouble, pulling its 777s from service for fire system checks today. Before that, it was Delta and American grounding MD-80s for wiring troubles. And how can we forget the US Airways plane that lost a piece of its wing on the way to Orlando. (It wasn't the same flight that featured a gun discharging in the cockpit.)
Well it's all just a warm up for tomorrow: Southwest CEO Gary Kelly is among the folks who'll be testifying in front of Congress about plane safety on Thursday. Tune in to watch Rep. James Oberstar chew everyone out!
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by egw
