Plenty of Blame to Go Around in Airline Mess

B-Daddy here. If you're stranded in an airport today and stumbled on our humble little blog by accident, my condolences and best wishes in finding a flight. Godspeed, to coin a phrase. However, don't get angry at the poor woman behind the ticket counter. I have a list of candidates on whom to vent your ire, provided for your consideration.

Some background. In 2006, yeah that long ago, the FAA told the airlines to check wire bundles in the wheel wells of MD-80, MD-88, and MD-90 aircraft. The goal was to ensure that the wires were secured so as to prevent them from becoming chaffed. Purportedly, checks were performed and no chaffing was found. The wiring bundles were also to have been secured to prevent future chaffing. Important point to note, at that time, the airlines were given 18 months to comply.


So why the hubbub? In a second round of spot checks, the FAA found "slack wires, clamps in the wrong position, insulation that was too thick...." blah, blah. OK, there were problems, but why did they then deny American Airlines' request to space out inspections and repairs over several days? After all, they had waited 18 months already.

The answer starts with our Congress. Sen. John Rockefeller, also famous for accusing McCain for knowing nothing of real war, and chair of the Senate aviation sub-committee has been lambasting the FAA repeatedly. Along with other lawmakers, he has asserted a cozy relationship between the agency and the airlines.

So what's a bureaucrat to do? The FAA spinelessly creates a phony crisis that will cost an airline hundreds of millions of dollars and create havoc for the flying public. That'll learn them West Virginian politicians.

Meanwhile, what about the management at American Airlines. Couldn't we fix the wheel well wiring correctly in the first place? Just because you get 18 months to get the job done, does that mean you do it half-a***d?

Finally, what about the highly credentialed union mechanics working for American? I have more than once heard the argument on behalf of unions, that they ensure a trained and qualified work force is on the job in industries important to the welfare and safety of the nation. Not in this case, most of the defects had to do with properly measuring the placement of banding around cable bundles to prevent chaffing and these guys couldn't get it right. The real concern is how they're doing with safety retrofits that are really important.

H/T: San Diego Union-Tribune

Remind Us Again Why it is this Place isn't Fumigated from Time to Time

In a disappointing development in the case of Lt. Col. Jefferey Chessani, the military judge presiding has denied the opportunity to obtain testimony from Rep. John Murtha (D-PA).

The case involving Chessani is merely the latest in the military’s efforts to hang someone… anyone… involved with the Haditha, Iraq incident of Nov. 19, 2005 which have largely been unsuccessful in getting the most serious of charges to stick.

Chessani, by all accounts an exemplary Marine, is being charged with failing to investigate and properly report the incident to his superiors.

Murtha’s involvement in all this was to pre-judge the Marines involved while an investigation into the incident was still on-going, claiming there was no firefight and that the Marines had killed innocent civilians in “cold blood”. He also charged that the officers had “covered it up”. Murtha said he received this scoop from the highest level of Marine command.

So here we have the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee spilling (alleged) inside information regarding an ongoing investigation in a very public fashion. It would seem to us that because of his standing in an entity that provides Congressional oversight for the armed services, his mere utterances could rightly point to a conflict of interest and because of the media attention they received, might make it difficult for Chessani to get a fair shake in his trial. Unfortunately, the judge doesn’t see it that way.

The defense, led by the Thomas More Law Center intends on appealing this ruling.

Look, we want the truth to come out. If there was a cover-up and Chessani was responsible for it, then he needs to be punished. However, Murtha’s comments were reckless and irresponsible. And since he’s made no bones about the fact that he’s against the war, we will apply Murtha's very own standard of justice and just assume his comments were politically motivated.

Kind of makes you wonder what is really being covered up.