The start of 2024 has brought a barrage of disturbing headlines about commercial air travel.
It started when an Alaska Airlines 737 Boeing MAX 9 jet lost a door plug in mid-air, leaving a gaping hole the size of an emergency exit in the fuselage and reigniting quality control concerns about the plane’s manufacturer. culminated in a major shake-up in the aircraft’s leadership. maker monday.
Now the Federal Aviation Administration is also increasing its focus on United Airlines after a series of recent maintenance incidents.
At the same time, leading industry safety experts insist that passengers should feel safe while flying despite the recent turbulence.
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FAA is stepping up oversight of United
In recent days, the FAA told United it would increase its oversight of the Chicago-based airline “due to recent safety events.”
Over the past month, United aircraft have been involved in a number of high-profile incidents that, while concerning in nature, have not resulted in any injuries to passengers.
One plane skidded off a runway in Houston. Another plane lost a tire after takeoff in San Francisco. One made an emergency landing in Los Angeles due to a problem with the hydraulic system. And yet another was found to be missing an external panel that covers the mechanical equipment after a recent flight.
The spate of problems prompted United CEO Scott Kirby to write a letter to customers last week, promising a greater emphasis on safety.
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Subsequently, the airline’s top safety chief acknowledged in a letter to employees that the company had “stepped up” interactions with the FAA, noting that the agency planned to “take a further look at several areas of our operation.”
“As part of this effort, the FAA will also suspend some certification activities for a period of time,” wrote Sasha Johnson, United’s vice president of corporate safety.
An FAA spokesperson further acknowledged its investigation into United in a statement to TPG Monday, noting that the agency will allow ongoing certification activities (think aircraft, products, etc.) to continue, but said that “future projects may be postponed” based on what the agency finds.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg was the first to report that the FAA has discussed temporarily halting United’s ability to launch new routes for which it has yet to start selling tickets, or perhaps delaying its ability to serve paying customers with to fly newly delivered aircraft.
Neither the agency nor the airline could comment specifically on these possible measures. However, 30-year FAA veteran Michael McCormick, who once headed New York’s critical air traffic control center (including on September 11, 2001), told TPG that such restrictions on United’s growth – if ultimately appointed by the FAA – would be abolished. largely unprecedented against a major US airline.
“They have never taken such regulatory action in the past – at least not since the deregulation of the airlines [in 1978]” says McCormick, who is now a faculty member at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Furthermore, he argues that the series of incidents that apparently prompted the FAA’s investigation into United are common throughout the airline industry.
“I doubt it,” he said. “Losing a tire, losing a panel on an airplane… these types of events are common across all types of airlines, national and international.”
In a letter to members late Monday, United’s pilots’ union described the FAA’s oversight as part of a “normal, defined and established process” for monitoring safety programs — a process the airline says it goes through every few years.
Aviation remains a safe way to travel
Whether it’s United’s recent inflight incidents, January’s MAX 9 emergency, or 2023’s wave of high-profile near misses on US runways, passengers have had plenty of reasons to worry over the past fifteen months. about air travel.
But it bears repeating: commercial aviation remains incredibly safe.
In fact, by several measures, 2023 was the safest year on record for the industry, according to a report from the International Air Transport Association last month. Given current accident rates involving commercial aircraft, someone would have to travel by air every day for more than 100,000 years to experience a fatal accident, the report said.
Last month marked 15 years since the last commercial airliner crashed on American soil.
Even the nation’s leading transportation safety advocate — who has sometimes sharply criticized airlines, policymakers and Boeing — urged perspective last week in a social media post criticizing recent industry coverage.
“The fact is, our aviation system is the safest in the world,” Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“That does not mean that we do not have more to do to guarantee safety in our airspace. Our work is never done,” Homendy continued. “But imagine what could happen if we focused as much on eliminating death on our roads.”
Passengers should indeed feel safe on board a flight, insisted McCormick, himself just back from a trip aboard a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
“I feel comfortable boarding any registered U.S. aircraft, on any certified U.S. airline, knowing that proper supervision, maintenance and inspection have taken place,” he said.
In short
As for United, it is not clear at this time what action might ultimately result from the FAA’s increased scrutiny of the airline, including its future growth plans.
“We simply don’t know,” the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association wrote in a letter to the pilots’ union on Monday.
“We applaud the company’s willingness to address the proverbial ‘elephants in the room,’” the letter continued. “Recognizing that they simply cannot operate in front of their skis is a welcome response.”
United is in the midst of an ambitious expansion, ordering hundreds of new planes over the next few years — although production delays at Boeing will almost certainly delay deliveries of those planes.
Of the FAA, Johnson wrote, “We welcome their involvement and are very open to hearing from them what they think.”
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