Ok now what is the FAA trying to do shut American down i mean can you get any stupider than this! I mean give me a break they are asinine if they are trying to shut them down. I heard a story that Southwest got a slap on the wrist for some problem and then American got fined i think 12,000 dollars. Is the federal government after American Airlines. please help me to answer this.
The FAA is not trying to shut down any airlines, but they ARE trying to look “tougher” in light of recent scrutiny. Note that trying to look tougher and actually being tougher are two different things. The FAA intentionally did their “crack down” in a way that would gain attention from the general public.
I thought it was more of Oberstar then the FAA.
The operative word is “look”. This is about publicity, not improving flying safety.
Since air crashes are usually the result of a string of small events of seemingly innocuous nature that combine to produce a disaster, it does have bearing. The message to the airlines is “keep up on your directives, no matter how small, or your planes will park. We will publicize it thoroughly and you will be punished by the FAA and the public who will fear you.”
It does have bearing, and they should have been fined. BUT, it came about because the FAA had egg on their face. Not as a safety measure.
My opinion is that the aircraft were not unsafe; the paper work and the FAA’s ego were unsafe.
Since there hasn’t been a single passenger life lost on a US airliner in years, it is more like “we will force you to lose more money without substantively improving passenger safety”.
It is no coincidence that this episode happened shortly after the FAA was embarrassed in a Congressional hearing.
Maybe the operators of MD-80s should ask themselves why they waited until the ‘last minute’ to make sure they were in full compliance with the AD when they had 18 months to cross the T’s and dot the I’s. Airwortiness Directive 2006-15-15
Probably because they thought like Dami’s opinion above… Blame the gubment for the defective workmanship.