The triumphs and tragedies of the Airline industry



The Triumphs And Tragedies Of The Airline Industry

Introduction

The onset of the airline industry has brought with it many triumphs and tragedies especially in the business sector. Some of the triumphs of the industry include opening a wide range of jobs for millions of people as well as starting whole new industries. Making travel faster and more efficient for everyone is a major triumph for the industry as well. As is employing the new technologies that exist and encouraging the creation of even more advanced technologies. This is not to say that the industry has not had its share of tragedies as well. The tragic loss of life that so often occurs because of the industry is not to be overlooked. The loss of jobs has lately become a major occurrence because of bankruptcy that several large industry leaders have gone through. Finally the environmental damage that the airline industry has caused is significant enough to mention. (Alvarz 2001)

Discussion

The common thread running through all of it is fatigue," said [James Oberstar], D-Minn. "We have many experiences of the flight crew, the cabin crew, who in cases of emergency were just so numb they couldn't respond instantly to a tragedy at hand." Studies show exhaustion can impair a pilot's judgment in much the same way alcohol does. It's not uncommon for overtired pilots to focus on a conversation or a single chore and miss other things going on around them, including critical flight information. In a few cases, (Arnoult 2001)they've just fallen asleep.

Crowded skies and exhausted pilots are a bad mix, the airline industry and pilot unions agree, but they're struggling over what to do about it. The airlines want to schedule some pilots with less-taxing flights fewer takeoffs and landings but for longer, not shorter, hours in the cockpit. The unions say they won't agree to more hours for those pilots in exchange for fewer hours for pilots who fly as many as a half-dozen short flights a day or take off at odd times. That was the main sticking point in an otherwise harmonious effort over the past month and a half to rewrite flying-time rules that in many cases are a half-century old and predate recent scientific findings concerning fatigue. The advisory committee on pilot fatigue delivered its recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration late Tuesday. (Costello 2000)Committee members said the FAA had asked them not to make their recommendations public. Concerned by the possibility that pilot fatigue has contributed to fatal crashes, some members of Congress have been pressing for changes. There are likely to be at least three sets of recommendations. Labor, passenger airlines and cargo carriers all have their own lists, participants said.

"There will be more than one sheet of music coming out," said Russ Leighton, director of aviation safety for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It will be up to FAA to write the final tune, he said. Although Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt has promised ...