Schiavo accuses the FAA of "sloppy inspections of planes, perfunctory review of pilots, lax oversight of airline procedures, disregard for bogus airplane parts, sieve-like security at airports, antiquated air-traffic-control systems."
The agency balks at taking action that would require major expenditures by the airlines. "Only with a major crash, only with people dead and sobbing survivors filling television screens, does the FAA step up to the plate and make changes," she charges.
The faults of the FAA contributed to the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades last May. Schiavo says the agency had known that the airline's luck was running out. ValuJet had an accident rate 14 times its competitors'. The FAA's own inspectors in the Atlanta office had wanted ValuJet shut down in February. But the memo recommending a shutdown was buried and ignored -- until the crash prompted its disclosure.
Then-Transportation Secretary Federico Pena went on television after the disaster claiming that ValuJet was a safe airline, and if it wasn't, "we would have grounded it." This was utterly false.
As Schiavo makes clear, the FAA's blundering in the ValuJet case was not exceptional. This is an agency that is simply not doing the job of ensuring airline safety, partly because it sees its assigned role as protecting the U.S. airline industry. The industry has an excellent safety record, but much of that appears to be due to the airlines' own efforts, not to the FAA's diligence, which she shows is often lacking. There will be more avoidable crashes unless changes are made.
The agency's performance must be drastically improved. Congress should examine the former inspector general's startling report and demand immediate reform.
Critics of the visits fear a resurgence of Japanese militarism, but that prospect seems remote. If Japan is to take its rightful place among the nations of the world, its leaders should be able to pay their respects to Japan's war dead even if the cause for which they died has been repudiated.
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