AIRLINE SAFETY
IS IN A DEEP RUT (part 3)
In early 1948, David Behnke, President
of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), told Congress:
"The current
trend to higher wing loadings constitutes a hazard to safe
flying. The airlines are looking to Rube Goldberg devices and
excessively braking action in an effort to bridge the gap
between the inadequacy of our airports and the hot-performance
characteristics of the planes."
In 1961, ALPA wrote to the FAA:
"The advantage
of this [Burnelli] is obvious from a safety standpoint. ...We
respectfully request that the FAA include some studies for
aircraft design which would embody low take-off and landing
speeds and still permit economical operation.
We believe
the Burnelli type design has these features, and an updated
version of the airplane should be considered."
In 1980, The eminent Professor Edmund J.
Cantilli, Director of Transportation Safety at New York
Polytechnic, advised industry and all relevant government
agencies:
"The use of Burnelli airliners would reduce air
crash fatalities by 85%."
Why hasn't the FAA responded to the
many professional pleas on the importance of the Burnelli
safety features? This is best answered by a U.S. News &
World Report article of June 26, 1995, 'WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE
FAA?', in which Billie Vincent, former top security officer at
the FAA, stated:
"... the
industry, they really own the FAA."
The examples given in the above
article, like the FAA exemption of the B-777 thrust reverser
flight testing, confirm Mr. Vincent's observation. The FAA
certification of a new, twin-engine airplane - powered with
newly developed engines - for immediate trans-Atlantic
operations, offers convincing evidence that the FAA has no
safety standards and, indeed, no common sense. This was
further confirmed by the March 15, 1997, news headline, "BA
WON'T SEND 777'S OVER ATLANTIC". "British Airways has
voluntarily suspended trans-Atlantic flights with a new model
of the Boeing 777 because of repeated problems with the
model's engines, which are the most powerful in the world. The
problem was that the pieces of metal that helped support the
gears of the General Electric engines had broken in
flight."
(continued on next
page) 
