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Subject:Re: Your opinion, please! From:eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:49:39 -0400
"Richard G. Combs"
>>Do you really believe that the people running airlines are so evil and/or
>>short-sighted that they'd be indifferent to having their $50 million planes
>>fall out of the sky, killing hundreds of their customers at a time? Do you
>>think the airline CEO who has $10 million in stock options cares less about
>>whether people think his planes are safe than some bureaucrat in Washington?
Actually, the existence of the FAA proves that the regulatory body does care
more than the CEO. Perhaps cares is a little strong, it more correct to say they
know more about all the potential risks than the CEO/airline worker and ensure
that a standard of risk tolerance that's acceptable to the flying public and not
the generation of profit is enforced. They also ensure that a safety lesson
learned by one company is learned by the entire industry anf the learning
experience need not be repeated.
Otherwise, management might just decide that the profit generated by
transporting oxygen generation canisters might be worth the risk. Or, in the
absence of clear and concise industry standard labeling of such canisters full
instead of empty canisters may be shipped in the hold of a passenger plane. Or,
without enforced accident investigations and incident reporting the cause of a
crash at one airline may be repeated at another.
By the same logic in the initial questions you could question the requirement
for speed and car safety laws. Do you think anyone would drive a car so rusty
that it could fall apart? Do you think anyone would attempt to register a car
without functioning brakes? Do you think anyone would deliberately drive so fast
that their car cannot stay on the road?
Fact of the matter is, look around at the cars on the road. It's scary what's on
the road with the inadequate enforcement as it is now. Imagine what would be on
the road if there was no enforcement at all. And as far as speed goes, the
existence of no speed limit zones on the Autobahn owes their existence to the
strict following and enforcement of speed rules where and when required (many
areas have changing speed indications based on traffic flow and weather) and the
almost fanatic requirements to get a license to drive in Germany.
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