US communication problems between aircraft manufacturing, airlines, and the FAA and DOT? The DOT needs more political back-up to report problems to Congress, and control the FAA, for a start. And which jobs are political appointees? As in the funny "Black Adder" (BBC America) episode when the quirky redheaded lady reminded her advisor in a shrill, sexy voice, "WHO is the Queen?" (Miranda Richardson?)
Ja, you must be choking!
Our US legal/court system is so far off the track, with desperate tort reform blocked, mostly by the Democratic Party (i.e. N.C. Senator John Edwards), that the (#1) prime objective is to avoid liability, which can result in HUGE lawsuits against ANY major corporation, thereby allowing certain select law firms (the firm in Pascagoula, MS earned about $1,000,000,000 US suing well-established tobacco companies to bring in state revenue: the class-action plantiffs normally receive only a small fraction: hopefully, THAT FIRM was blown away by hurricane Katrina's megawaves
with few regrets from corporate America or the US medical system-check how most doctors voted in the last elections) to bring in H-U-G-E ca$h settlements.
This culture/society designed for personal/corporate self-protection leads to many safety problems in US airline operations.
Another problem is from the reporting of so-called on time statistics (+ or - 14 minutes from scheduled arrival...) to the US DOT (Dept. of Trans.)-this results in constant pressure on pilots, tedchnicians, loading personnel and gate agents to squeeze everything together. Unbelievable safety compromises result, i.e. when OUR aircraft's weight and balance data was under-reported by exactly 14,000 pounds for a planned gross weight at about 98,000 pounds!-this was just one example! When a problem happens overseas with a certification flaw (ATR-42...Europe, then "allegedly
hidden" or "forgotten" information leading to the Roselawn tragedy) or deregulation creating a need to quickly rubber-stamp aircraft operating manuals (Air Florida B-737), then even a huge. disjointed, over-bloated bureaucracy, in order to avoid smearing the White House image, goes into its standard, well-rehearsed, self-protection mode.
