you can have aircraft and airlines that meet 100% of their scheduled maintenance, or cheap tickets. you cant have both, and no matter how much whining you do on Consumerist, it still wont happen.

mechanics dont work for free.

oakie

Claystil

I think the Southwest inspection issue was debated at length here. No need to rehash.

I'm just as freaked out and pissed off as anyone else because I fly a lot. But my understanding is that (at least in AA's case) an audit revealed the wire cover issue. So, the system worked. There was oversight.

Are some corporations greedy? Yes. Do some of them cut corners? Sure. Do we know that's the case here? No. The inspections and audits are there for a reason. When the system catches something, were' supposed to be thankful. Not start blaming the airline for being careless.

If an investigation later reveals that greed was to blame, then I will gladly take that comment back. For now, I'm just glad they caught things and are addressing them. I'd mch rather be grounded than on an unsafe aircraft.

MissTic

The MD-80 and the 737 are both exceptionally safe aircraft. The US commercial flight system is so remarkably safe, that it has been 7 years since there was a major aircraft lost. Millions of people fly these planes and those people get to their destinations safely.

There was one regional Jet lost because the pilots took off on the wrong runway because they weren't paying attention.

Southwest took a brutal beating in the press because they put off mandated inspections. This is the inevitable fallout.

@noquarter: NWA doesn't fly MD-80's. Their DC-9's preceed the MD-80 model and are not the same.

starrion

benwellington

Most airlines do do safety checks regularly, as generally the worst possible press an airline can get is an emergency landing or crash. Maybe not to the extent that they should, which is obviously bad, but I have a hard time believing that all airlines consistently send up planes that aren't flight-worthy just to save a few bucks. If that were the case, then we'd be hearing about diversions and crashes much more frequently. Now, Southwest has shown themselves willing over the years to sacrifice just about anything to save a buck, that's true. That's exactly why their tickets are so cheap, comparatively. I don't know how a sane person can fly on them and not expect that some serious corners have been cut in all regards. But despite the obvious lapses in safety, you still don't see Southwest planes falling out of the sky left and right. I mean, they're still taking risks they shouldn't and as such deserve all this bad press and closer regulation by the FAA, but to suggest that this incident implies all airlines are taking their passengers and employees lives in their hands out of sheer greed and laziness seems like an exaggeration.

It just happens that these days bad press for one airline frequently translates into bad press for the industry as a whole (in some ways this is completely justified, I might add), so I wouldn't doubt that AA and Delta are just trying to shake off any guilt-by-association from the Southwest debacle as quickly and publicly as possible. A day of interrupted flights is no fun for the passengers, but from a business perspective one day of insanity is probably better than months of passengers questioning their commitment to safety.

The Boyg

AlteredBeast

They, Delta and Southwest were cutting corners and since SW got caught, the other two decided to straighten up. What's ridiculous is that consumers are made to suffer for their poor management.

rellog

The other part of me is wondering how safe the plan I flew in was.

This shouldnt afect Delta though. They never take off and land on time. They should change their slogan to "We'll get you there... eventually."

jaydez

BlondeGrlz

If it means she'll be flying safer, then we can deal with a delay or two.

rustyni

noquarter

God damn airlines. And I *never* fly.

hubris

AlteredBeast

mrmysterious