Guys, come on - the article quoted earlier states that the airline had missed only one step in applying the AD. The overall modification (i.e. installation of parts) required by the AD was implemented, some kind of a verification step was missed. This is likely attributable to some kind of a clerical error rather than a cut throat desire to bring down costs.
The FAA gave - I believe - six years to implement this AD - hardly a safety critical modification. Common sense would even challenge the logic of requiring a mod if clearly aircraft can continue flying without it for 6 years.
A quick look at the stats (
NTSB - Aviation Accident Statistics) shows reality is not as grim as you paint it. Depending on how you count the volume of traffic has gone up by between 30%-50% but I don't really see a significant increase in accident rates over the past 20 years.