On budget airlines

This comes just as I’m about to embark on a trip flying on two different budget airlines.

Remember the budget airplane that crashed into the deep blue sea with over 100 people on board 15 months ago? They retrieved the black boxes last August with the help of a salvage ship and just this week the results were announced: primarily pilot error. They were distracted by some other problem and forget to check their instruments. The report also said that there was no evidence that the airline “included component reliability in its reliability control program, to ensure the effectiveness or airworthiness of aircraft components for the fleet at the time of the accident.” Hmmm. Poor maintainence and poorly trained pilots. The rumors were true.

Two weeks ago, the same airline was grounded by the government for failure to meet minimum safety standards after yet another of its planes had a mild crash–it seems some people never learn. Hats off to the government though. They do, eventually, with enough encouragement, get around to doing their jobs. Starting last July the EU refused to allow ANY airlines from that country to land anywhere in the EU. It was a national embarassment. I imagine that has motivated them to put a little bit of effort into doing inspections.

What amazes me the most though, is how angry the passengers were who had booked tickets on that airline only to find the airline was grounded for safety reasons. They weren’t angry at the airline, they were angry at the safety board. Some of them even went down and had a protest demonstration at the safety board office!

It’s part of the philosophy – if it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go. If it’s not, then God Himself will hold that broken plane with the incompetent pilots up in the air and get you home safely.