Airline Shortcomings as an Indicator of Progress

Two U.S. airlines made headlines on Wednesday; Dallas based-Southwest Airlines generated ink when it reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that it failed to do required rudder inspections on 128 of its Boeing 737s.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
Graceful wings of the A330 at YYZ
Graceful wings of the A330 at YYZ
Two U.S. airlines made headlines on Wednesday; Dallas based-SouthwestAirlines generated ink when it reported to the Federal Aviation Administrationthat it failed to do required rudder inspections on 128 of its Boeing 737s. Meantimeat the Chicago Headquarters of United, public relations executives were tryingto slow heavy media breathing over a letter sent by the airline's safety andoperations honchos to United pilots, warning them to be careful up there.
Should the traveling public be concerned?
When I was askedabout this by Ismat Sarah Mangla a reporter with the International Business Times, I told herwhile the public usually focuses on deadly crashes, a truer indicator ofwhether an airline is safe is not the highly unusual fatal airplane accident,but rather how it handles everyday maintenance and operations.
By reporting to the FAA that it failed to do required inspectionsSouthwest opened itself up to a news cycle or two of bad press. It acknowledged shortcomings in the way it schedules and completes important safety tasks. Andmake no mistake this is not a "technicality." Southwest has some remedial workto do.
Southwest's news was still trending when United's letter to itspilots started to go viral, in another case of self-reporting, even if it wasintended (presumably) only for in-house consumption.
United's flight operations chief Howard Attarian and MikeQuiello, vice president for corporate safety reminded pilots of several woulda' coulda' shoulda' events that butfor the love of God could have caused real live disasters; a ground proximitywarning alert, an airport arrival with an airplane in a low fuel state, an undesiredaircraft condition on departure. In the letter, United's pilots are asked ifthey have their "priorities in line" and whether they are paying close enough attentionto risk evaluation and crew resource management.
"Recent events in our operation have dictated that wecommunicate with all of you immediately. Over the past few weeks, our airlinehas experienced what we would categorize as major safety events andnear-misses." reads the letter provided to me by one of the pilots to whom it was written.
Far from causing worry for the traveling public, United's "brutallyhonest message" is a sign the airline is open to examining the many changes thatcould be causing distractions or a decline in performance. Pilots there tell me, integrating the vastlydifferent cultures of the former separate airlines United and Continental remainsdifficult.
Six weeks ago, the US Secretary of Transportation AnthonyFoxx, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and the head of Airlines for America Nicholas Caliostood before reporters in Washington DC to tout new federal requirements thatairlines institute safety management systems by 2018. Granted, it has been along time coming. Done right SMS canhave far reaching effect; empowering all employees to see safety as theirpersonal responsibility.
"In the past the focus on improving safety has been on findingthe causes of accidents," Huerta told the reporters. "Fortunately today we havefew accidents." Prevention is today's challenge.
Prevention seems squishy, passive, like holding ones breath withfingers crossed. This week a better image came to mind when two airlines did thetough thing revealing their weaknesses and taking the PR hit, but with the more important goal of making improvements. That should have the traveling public feeling pretty good.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE