Editorials
Thursday, June 20, 1996
FAA feels backlash from
Valujet crash
SHORTCOMINGS in the Federal Aviation Administration's mission to ensure safety in commercial aviation are coming under scrutiny in the wake of the Valujet crash in the Florida Everglades five weeks ago. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena wants to eliminate the FAA's dual - and possibly conflicting - roles of promoting aviation and ensuring safety.
Like many fledgling airlines, Valujet contracted out maintenance of its aircraft, creating a situation in which communications breakdowns could occur. That is believed to be what caused a mistakenly labeled box of oxygen generators to be loaded on the Valujet plane, apparently leading to the fire that caused the crash.
Although Valujet's fleet was among the oldest of any American jet airline, the FAA had not conducted a structural inspection of its aircraft in two years. The FAA had found safety and maintenance problems with Valujet less than a year after the airline was certified to begin flying in October 1993. The FAA has now ordered Valujet to suspend operations because of safety deficiencies uncovered in the aftermath of the crash - an unprecedented action against a major carrier.
Immediately after the crash, Pena and FAA Administrator David Hinson quickly defended Valujet's safety record, but were embarrassed when contradictory findings by FAA inspectors were disclosed. Clearly neither knew what he was talking about. As critical attention focused on the FAA's performance, it was announced that Anthony Broderick, the agency's No. 2 man, will retire at the end of the month.
Hinson has announced requirements that airlines prove the contractors they hire are capable of handling the work, that maintenance programs conform to regulations, that all contractors be approved by and listed with the agency and that new oversight practices be initiated.
The House Transportation Committee plans hearings on the problem. Pena is urging that Congress change the FAA's charter to give it a single mission: safety. U.S. commercial aviation has an excellent safety record, but every crash demonstrates the need for further improvement. Focusing the FAA solely on safety, and jettisoning its promotional responsibilities, could be helpful.
Other editorials in brief:
Restrictions on media
THE state went overboard in keeping the news media away from the scene of the Makua eviction. Reporters and photographers were ordered away from the immediate area and restricted in one case to a site several hundred yards away, in another two miles away - too far to see what was going on.
By keeping the media at such an extreme distance, the state seems to have been chiefly concerned with preventing too-vivid reporting of the eviction, particularly material that might have been embarrassing. This is not a legitimate justification for barring reporters and photographers from a news scene.
Welfare payments
UNWED fathers too often are allowed to walk away from their obligations to support their offspring, and taxpayers are stuck with the resulting welfare tab. President Clinton has signed an order making identification of the father a condition for the mother to receive welfare payments, so child-support payments can be collected. The problem with Clinton's order is that strict enforcement would place children at risk. Welfare is based on the needs of children, and they may be victimized by so-called reforms. Under such a system, incentives may be preferable to threats about withholding payments.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor