It isn’t the sudden drop that kills you, it’s the sudden stop from six miles high to a very hard landing at ground (meat) zero.

By Egon E Mosum

It has become a cliché that air travel is the safest form of transportation – safer than driving your car.  

Of course, there is a significant difference.  

If your Chevy’s engine fails, you don’t drop 30,000 feet into the ground at a velocity that certainly is, like the old Chevrolet Corvair automobile, unsafe at any speed.

Another difference is all cars drive on the same flat surface. Planes, on the other hand, operate at a variety of altitudes and rely on both radar and experienced air traffic controllers.

In a car, in the event of driver error or faulty maintenance of the automobile, a resulting accident will see a statistical probability that the passengers and driver survive.

That’s not so true in an airplane. It isn’t the sudden drop that kills you, it’s the sudden stop from six miles high 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 goes down, they lose track of what’s up there in the very wild blue yonder.

But airline dishonesty about maintenance and the like isn’t anything new. Let’s take a flying visit to some of the stories that may have you thinking you’ll take the train next time.

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 it’s a safe bet that the airline didn’t make any effort to publicize that to its passengers and cargo clients.

Anyone who’s been to a major airport knows how busy they are. There are 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.

But, thanks to some diligent reporting we now know 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. The 67 people onboard didn’t survive.

This wasn’t a freak accident. Human error, faulty equipment malfunction or mis-maintenance were likely at fault.

The Associated Press reported 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’s 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; these are lethal threats.

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 as being done. Perhaps we need better trained air traffic controllers monitoring better protected equipment. Perhaps we need better trained pilots — including periodic psychological examinations — because one pilot’s really bad day shouldn’t become everyone’s last.

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.

Sources:

[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] 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