Terrorists are not the greatest threat to safe air travel, says someone who has studied the subject extensively. The biggest threat: outsourcing critical maintenance work to third-party vendors.
Bill McGee spent most of 2006 investigating airline safety on behalf of Consumer Reports magazine. His conclusion:
“We found that even though domestic airlines have dramatically increased their use of outsourced maintenance facilities, there are critical regulatory differences between repair shops run by airlines and those by outside vendors, even within the US.”
Experts also told Mr McGee, he wrote in USA Today, there’s a correlation between outsourced maintenance and airline-induced flight delays.
“Further, we quoted front-line Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintenance inspectors concerned about their inability to conduct timely inspections, and airline mechanics concerned about shoddy work done overseas, “he adds.
Questions about the FAA’s oversight have been growing for years. The organization has had to cope with fast-growing start-up airlines and older carriers operating under tough cost pressures.
“Then there’s the nation’s aging air traffic control network,” Mr McGee wrote.
This list of concerns indicates that in some ways, aviation safety is like global warming. Since the nation’s commercial aviation safety record is so high, it’s hard to conceive of the aeronautical infrastructure eroding. But without proper vigilance, it will, Mr McGee said.
Airlines are still the safest way to travel.
Several years ago aviation statistician Arnold Barnett concluded the actual risk of one person being involved in a fatal airline accident to be once every 19,000 years, provided he flew on an airline flight once each day for 19,000 years. That commercial aviation is safer than driving is beyond dispute.
Report by David Wilkening
