It has become a cliché that air travel is the safest form of transportation, much safer than driving your car. Of course, there is a significant difference.
By Egon E. Mosum
Of course, there is a significant difference.
If your Chevy has engine failure, you don’t drop thirty thousand feet into the ground at a velocity that certainly is, like the old Chevrolet Corvair automobile, unsafe at any speed.
Another difference is, all of the cars are traveling in the same plane (pun not intended), and not at a variety of altitudes requiring the services of both radar and an experienced air traffic controller.
It is more likely that in the event of driver error, in the event of faulty maintenance of the automobile, any accident resulting will see a statistical probability that the passengers and driver survive.
Not so in an airplane, because it isn’t the sudden drop that kills you, it’s the sudden stop from six miles up to a very hard landing at ground (meat) zero.
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Recently in the news, we have read of errors causing air crashes, and blackouts causing blind air traffic controllers when the radar is not operating, and they lose track of what’s up there in the very wild blue yonder.
But airline lies about maintenance and the like aren’t anything new, so let’s pay a flying visit to some of the stories that may have you thinking next time you’ll take the train.
In a 2018 article, it was reported regarding their airplanes, ‘There have been persistent concerns about how the discount carrier (Southwest Airlines) maintains them. The Federal Aviation Administration has levied multimillion-dollar fines against the airline on three occasions since 2009, with a total of $17.5 million in safety penalties imposed since 2000.’ [1]
The article goes on to reveal ‘ airlineratings.com gives Southwest only four out of seven possible stars — the lowest rating of any American carrier — on the basis of past fatalities and a failure to complete a special international safety audit.’[2]
But it’s not only Southwest that fudges on the maintenance of its flying machines.
Let’s take a look at what climbs to the heights in colder airspace.
In 2000, the Federal Aviation Administration with respect to Alaska Airlines, ‘found that while the airline was generally in compliance with the regulations, there were serious breakdowns in record keeping, documentation and quality assurance. The inspection also found that the airline’s maintenance personnel are not following FAA approved procedures contained in the airline’s manuals.’ [3]
That isn’t safe, but what is a safe bet is the airline didn’t make any effort to publicize that to its passengers and cargo clients.
Anybody who has been to a major airport knows that they are busy places with plenty of takeoffs and landings and aircraft in the sky at any one time. It’s a good idea that the air traffic controllers on the ground have working radar so they know where every plane is, because two planes cannot occupy the same space at the same time without a lot of corpses.
But, thanks to some diligent reporting it has been learned that at Newark Liberty Airport ‘controllers lost radio contact with pilots flying into the airport in recent months.’ [4]
But for the press, the passengers on the planes, and the future flyers would never have known that.
Most readers will remember the helicopter-plane crash at Reagan Airport that took place in January 2025. However the sixty seven people aboard the two aircraft won’t—they are dead.
Once again, we look to human error and/or equipment malfunction or mis-maintenance.
It wasn’t exactly like this was some anomalous occurrence, one that could not have been anticipated, because it was reported by the Associated Press that ‘The National Transportaty Safety Board has said there were 85 dangerous close calls between planes and helicopters near Reagan National in the three years before the crash, and collision alarms had been ordering pilots to take evasive action at least once a month since 2011.’ [5]
One might opine that after fourteen years of near-misses the personnel hired to maintain safe skies might have tightened up their procedures and protocols a bit.
But, apparently they didn’t.
In more recent years, 2021-2024, Reagan Airport chalked up an impressive record of near misses. According to an analysis of the National Transportation Safety Board, ‘between October 2021 and December 2024, there were a total of 944,179 commercial operations at DCA. During that time, there were 15,214 "close-proximity events" between commercial airplanes and helicopters. Of those, 85 had a horizontal separation of less than 1,500 feet and were less than 200 feet apart vertically.’[6].
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Having the government and major corporations lie to the public isn’t exactly something new. It is almost expected these days.
However, when it comes to a major issue of public transportation safety, I’m sure we’d all appreciate being accurately apprised of the risks we take when flying the ‘friendly’ skies that these days are not all that friendly.
Fudged maintenance records, radar blackouts, pilot error, air traffic controllers going blind when their equipment crashes; this is not a consummation devoutly to be wished.
We need more oversight by qualified people checking on people who should be qualified to protect air passengers. We need investigations as to why radar would suddenly go black, because those reasons can affect both civilian and military aircraft, and that’s a really dangerous scenario.
Perhaps we need more trained maintenance workers who will perform the work they log done. Perhaps we need better trained air traffic controllers monitoring better protected equipment. Perhaps we need better trained pilots—including periodic psychological examinations of said pilots—just in case they are having a really bad day and want to share it with others.
We pay taxes for a government to protect us, especially in areas where government should be protecting us, like air transportation safety.
Recently, it appears we are not getting our monies worth, and people are dying to prove it.
[1] Southwest Airlines fined millions for maintenance issues since 2009 Gatehouse, 4/18/18 THE NATIONAL https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/the-national-today-newsletter-southwest-airlines-erdogan-1.4623418
[2] IBID.
[3]FAA PROPOSES TO SUSPEND ALASKA AIRLINESÆ HEAVY MAINTENANCE AUTHORITY 6/5/2000 Freight Waves https://www.freightwaves.com/news/faa-proposes-to-suspend-alaska-airlines-heavy-maintenance-authority
[4] RADAR SCREENS THAT SERVICE TROUBLED NEWARK LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BRIEFLY GO DARK Costello, Blackman, Li 5/9/25 NBC https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/radar-screens-go-dark-newark-airport-rcna205839
[5]WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE DEADLY AIRCRASH BETWEEN A PASSENGER JET AND A US ARMY HELICOPTER Funk, 3/27/25 Associated Press https://apnews.com/article/dc-plane-crash-investigation-ntsb-faa-9da42d267bf44049ecc57763961b0ac4
[6] DEFENSE SCIENCE INSTITUTE [1] There's a serious safety issue,' investigators say following DCA midair collision Lewis, 3/12/25 NPR https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5324543/ntsb-dca-mid-air-collision-american-black-hawk
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