Lodown
I agree with you 100%. But it is a good start.
I agree that many of the politicians have a lot to answer for - but they will never be held accountable. Similarly with the Department of Transport which was meant to oversee CASA but just let it do what it wanted. However, the driving force behind all this was Byron ( and his hand selcted yes men) in his efforts to placate industry and stop any criticism of CASA (if you take no regulatory there will be no criticism of CASA from industry - if you let industry dictate what rules to write there will be critcism of CASA - if you get rid of all those who stand up to industry there will be no criticism of CASA) - all the time forgetting that CASA was created to protect the public in the wake of the Monarch and Seaview disasters.
The Senate inquiry is right on the heels of the US Congressional inquiry into the FAA and its cosy relationship with industry. Hopefully it will be as strong and forceful as the Congressional inquiry.
"CNN 1 April 2008
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration is putting the public at risk with lax oversight and a too-cozy relationship with the airlines, a top lawmaker and aviation experts said Tuesday.
The FAA has shown a dangerous lack of enforcement compliance with inspection requirements, resulting in thousands of people flying on potentially unsafe aircraft, said Rep. James Oberstar, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
"This is the most serious lapse in aviation safety at the FAA that I've seen in 23 years," the Minnesota Democrat said in an interview with CNN, a position he restated at a news conference Tuesday.
"The result of inspection failures and enforcement failure has meant that aircraft have flown unsafe, un-airworthy and at risk of lives," he said.
Oberstar scheduled hearings to begin Thursday, after a congressional investigation uncovered that discount airline Southwest Airlines kept dozens of aircraft in the air without mandatory inspections -- and, in some cases, with defects the inspections were designed to detect."
Here's the link if you are interested:
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetail.aspx?NewsID=430[/FONT]