Airplane safety: Is globalization a bad thing?
Still catching up on the Sunday papers, I just stumbled onto a piece in the Washington Post’s business section reporting that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation is taking the Federal Aviation Administration to task for using shoddy parts in some of today’s biggest plane models.
The folks over at Transportation are taking umbrage with the fact that many of these parts used to be made exclusively in the U.S., but now happen to be made overseas, since – ah, the fact of globalization – it is often cheaper to make things in foreign countries than at home.
The government says the FAA “lacks an adequate system for checking the quality of airplane components,” the Post reports.
What are the plane models in question? Parts of Boeing’s 777 (and its planned 787) are made abroad, in places like China, Brazil and Australia.
The Post quotes from the report: “Neither manufacturers nor FAA inspectors have provided effective oversight of suppliers; this has allowed substandard parts to enter the aviation supply chain.”
Apparently the report is citing engine failures in 2003 – a total of four, including one in flight – that can be traced back to questionable, foreign-manufactured parts.
It is of course ironic when you consider the role the airplane has played in making this world a smaller (not to say, pace Thomas Friedman, flatter) place and how the free flow of goods and services from one corner of the globe to the other wouldn’t be possible without them. Globalization owes a lot to the airplane (among other things), and now the very phenomenon planes helped wrought might be undermining their safety (and ours)?
FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette tells the Post, “There are absolutely no imminent safety issues raised by the report.”
But we’ve been warned…
Dying on a plane is less likely than dying in a plane crash
According to this article, the chances of dying on an airplane is 1 in 7.6 million. The chances of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 1.3 million. Both are rare occurrences, but the recent death of Carina Desir, a woman on a flight to New York has created a new flurry of concern.
There is one detail in the article that does pose something to consider, I think, for people who have had serious breathing problems. If you’ve ever seen a person have an asthma attack or difficulty breathing due to congestive heart failure, it’s frightening. In addition to describing what happened with this recent death on the American Airlines flight, the article describes another incident in 1998 when a man died from an asthma attack. His 10-year old daughter and wife were flying with him.
The oxygen tanks aboard airplanes are made for cabin decompression situations and not for breathing problems from medical conditions. From what I understand, the concentration of oxygen that is given on airplanes is different than what might be administered in a hospital. It’s also administered with a face mask. In a hospital, oxygen is administered with a nose tube. This doesn’t mean the oxygen on planes won’t work, but that in a dire situation, it may not be enough. The situation with Mrs. Desir who died recently is still under investigation.
What strange things have been found on planes?
Click the image to read the bizarre story…
The procedures for what to do if a person dies on an airplane are being reconsidered since different airlines have different procedures. The question of whether to continue to the original destination or land as soon as possible is one of details being looked at in order to understand what is the best option. It seems to me there are drawbacks to either choice. Although, it might be extremely upsetting to fly with dead body, and the lack of control from being up in the air and unable to do anything, must be excruciating for friends and family.
Still if you’re flying from New York to California and end up in Chicago, there’s the problem of getting the body where you need it to be and then getting yourself there as well. For international flights, that could even be a worse scenario. I do wonder about what people should do who have breathing issues to protect themselves before getting on an airplane. Maybe they should bring their own oxygen. [via AP]
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Got a travel horror story? Which airline? What happened? Let us know.
Southwest comments on the removal of unruly women from their flight
Over the past few Southwest Airlines stories we’ve gotten to know Southwest PR department pretty well, and I recently had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Paula Berg.
I asked her about the purported fiasco that’s unfolding around another round of women being booted from her airline’s flights and she had the following to say:
“Okay, Grant – Here are the facts…on Flight: #3144 from San Diego to Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2008, two female passengers were being extremely loud and obnoxious from the moment they stepped on the aircraft. The two Customers were yelling for service from the Flight Attendants while they were in the midst of taking drink orders, and flipping people off. For that reason, our Flight Attendants refused to potentially escalate the situation by serving the girls alcohol. The girls then identified themselves as “TSA Employees,” told one of our Flight Attendants that she “would be taken care of,” and continued to harass our Flight Attendants and Customers throughout the flight. As a precautionary measure, our Flight Crew decided to have law enforcement meet the flight upon its arrival in Las Vegas.
Those are the facts, but I think it is important to point out that, there are rules for flying on any airline. And, when in doubt, the “Golden Rule” is a good place to start.
Just consider for a moment, if someone came into your office or place of business and started yelling, cursing, and flipping your customers off…you’d probably do one of three things 1) ask them to stop, 2) ask them to leave, 3) or call the cops. Unfortunately, when you’re at 35,000 feet, you can ask the Customer to stop, but you don’t have the luxury of simply asking the Customer to leave.
When a Customer makes it clear to that they are unable or unwilling to show the most basic levels of respect for the comfort and safety of the other 135 passengers onboard, we have to do something. Our Employees have an obligation to protect our Customers, and we have an obligation to ensure a safe work environment for our Employees.
Some may question the decision of our Crew, but ask yourself this…”When was the last time you were escorted off a plane by law enforcement,” and “how many times have you witnessed someone being escorted off a plane?” The truth is these are rare occurrences.
Anyone that has flown on us knows that we typically have a very fun, relaxed, and enjoyable environment onboard our aircraft. But when someone threatens our Customers or our Crews, we have to draw the line.
We have +34,000 Employees that work hard everyday to make this a great airline. Obviously, we’re not perfect. We make mistakes. And, with 100 million passengers flying with us each year, not everyone is going to have a perfect travel experience. When we do something wrong, we try to fix it, proactively in many cases. But, we do not believe this is one of those cases.
If these two Customers truly have an issue with how the situation played out onboard, I would ask them to contact our Customer Relations Department. We have a team of Customer Relations Employees on hand that are dedicated to assisting our Customers (I know, because I started my airline career in that department seven years ago).”
We’d like to thank Paula for all of her attentive work and attention she’s given us at Gadling. The facts, straight from the airline, always help straighten issues out when it comes to fiascoes like this.
Read the original article here.
Is Pan Am finally dead?
A once great name will no longer be flying the skies. The airline that bought the Pan Am logo and operated under it for the past ten years has been found unfit to fly by the DOT according to The Boston Globe.
The original Pan Am went out of business in 1991 but the name was sold and flown by a new carrier a few years later. The latest venture in the Pan Am name has operated since 1998 out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
If you want to look up how NOT to run an airline, just read the scathing Air Line Pilots Association report that pleaded with the DOT to shut the airline down:
“[Pan Am] repeatedly discharged pilots because they were unwilling to fly in violation of FAA safety rules, repeatedly refused to comply with final and binding decisions of system boards of adjustment as required under the RLA and willfully violated environmental laws.”
The DOT apparently agreed, and said in a report last month that “we find that [Pan Am’s] authority to operate large aircraft was based on false financial information submitted to the department, without which the air carrier would not have been found fit to hold such authority when if first sought to expand,” the DOT order states. “We find further that [their] management knew, or should have known, about the false financial information and it, therefore … lacks the competence necessary to oversee the air transportation authorized in the air carrier’s certificate.”
As an example of Pan Am’s arrogance with regard to FAA law, in 2001 they fired Captain Don Simonds for refusing to continue a trip that would take him well past the FAA mandated maximum 16 hour duty day. The Airline Pilots Association was able to get Captain Simonds job back, but unions were eliminated at the company in 2004 when the carrier shut down and immediately reopened using a different operating certificate.
It’s too bad such a great name had to be tarnished by such incompetent management.