Ode to the Grounded Airplane

Ah flight... the dream of many and the reality of even more today. Well until recently when FAA crackdowns combined with high fuel prices have led to delays and bankruptcies.

All month thousands of flights have been canceled leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers dealing with delays due to a failure of federal regulators to act on whistleblowers' complaints" about maintenance. "Those scrubbed flights are part of the 'cascading effect'' across the industry since the Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged lapses in its oversight of the airline industry." What happened you may be wondering... well the President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists says, "the agency has become so focused on working in partnership with the airlines that it has allowed its safety mission to become a lower priority, in many cases ignoring warnings from its own inspector workforce." This random guy from Kansas City and the inspector general at the Department of Transportation places blame squarely on the government: "This week’s debacle for air travelers is presumably the result of the FAA trying to make up for lost ground — or at least seeking to give the impression of doing so."

But wait... the FAA is only part of the problem. The FAA related issues are effecting mostly older planes, such as those flown American, Southwest, Alaskan, and Northwestern as well as others. In the meanwhile, fuel prices and uneasy creditors has led to five airlines going bankrupt: Aloha, ATA, Skybus, Skyway and Frontier in the last two weeks. These smaller airlines were not as effected by the FAA but still hit a snag. Talk about a timing problem! But don't be surprised to see more go under soon.

Perhaps if we could go back to human powered flight, think of the Greek legend of Icarus... then we would not have to deal with delays. Or better yet... rocket powered planes! Think of this as NASCAR in the air... the wrecks will be so much better! Just wait until the FAA has to try to regulate Pod Racing!