Assignment:
Air Carriers is the topic: Research an air incident that was considered to be the airlines fault because of safety violations. Give the details of the cases and the url for the case (only include the url at the end of the post). Lastly, give your opinion of why airlines cut safety corners in light of protecting their employees.
Instructions: Your initial post should be at least 250 words. Please post more than 2 reply responses of 100 or more words to your classmates or the instructor. Responses should be a minimum of 100 words and include direct questions.
Here is your post: Air Carriers
Since the advent of the air-plane as a means of air transport, humans have experienced some of the worst disasters. For a case in point, the AirAsia flight QZ8501 that unfortunately crashed into the Java Sea left many unanswered questions as they relate to flight safety. This air accident that happened in December 2008 led to the death of all the 162 people who were on board. As the investigations into the crash of this plane kicked off, it was established that poor operating procedures as well as inadequate safety standards largely contributed towards the crash of this plane (Morrow, 2015).
The Indonesia National Weather Monitor came out and stated that the ill-fated flight lacked the latest weather report which are vital before a pilot can take-off. In addition to that, the plane which was to take off at 5:35 am from Surabaya International Airport postponed its journey two hours later and ignored the violent storm that was looming by (Morrow, 2015). This forms one of the main safety precautions that were overlooked by the pilots. Further to that, was the information released by the Indonesia Authorities that showed the flight was not given the permission to fly the Surabaya to Singapore route on the precise day that the crash occurred (Morrow, 2015).
As the air transport seeks to increase the safety of their flights so does the issue of cutting corners become even more pronounced. Here, many of the air accidents including the AirAsia flight QZ8501 were found to have cut corners in a number of ways. One has been the practice imposed upon the engineers to overwork as a result of many of the staff being cut off from the system. In addition to that, the use of many airplane parts has been used within and even past their usable lifetime.
References
Morrow, M., (2015). Evidence Mounts of Safety Violations Contributing to AirAsia Plane Crash. World Socialist Web Site.
Ray responded to this and I need for you to answer back: Great post this week, this was a topic that I thought about covering as well so I am glad that you did. Its very unfortunate that again, this is something that could come down again to another pilots error. As I have seen in several of this weeks forums that many of this issues are not just mechanical issues but they are human error as well. It is more disturbing knowing that the flight was still released and eligible to fly, knowing that the pilot did not have all the necessary information he needed as far as weather, and the inspection checklist for the flight prior to take off. great job on this weeks post.
Dustin wrote this to the post and he required 100 words back: I just finished reading your forum discussion on air carrier incidents involving a safety violation. It's interesting to read how easily most of the aircraft disasters could have been prevented with technology and safety checks. A good example is your article as the pilot not having the weather reports could have made the difference between the plan crashing or taking an alternate route.
I cannot imagine why an airline would go ahead with a flight if it new the weather was bad and could be detrimental to the flight. I am sure they did not plan or think this would happen but why risk it? I also don't understand why the airline decided to go ahead with the flight when they did not have permission to fly the route they took. I agree as well that most of these accidents especially this one are because aircraft personnel have cut corners. But I think they do this because of the increase demand for moving personnel and a high tasking and requirements with limited resources. Again I enjoyed reading your discussion and I think you did a very informative discussion for week 4 forums.
Very Respectfully,
Ray's 100 words to him: For this weeks topic, I am covering a safety violation that was committed by American Airlines. The incident occurred in 2007 and the investigation led on into 2008, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) fined the Airlines $7.1 Million dollars, for flying these planes at a time where they delayed repairs on an auto pilot system on two air craft and continued to fly them during this time. The air craft continued to fly for about week, on approximately 10 more flights before the problem was finally fixed.
The reason the fine seems justified, is because American airlines new of the problem and continued to postpone the problem. I believe this was done mainly in part because of it being the holiday season they did not want to risk having to take another aircraft down for maintenance. Another reason that this was a big issue, is because the planes flew in tighter air space, that could have catastrophic results by flying with a faulty auto piloted system.
One final issue that was discovered by the FAA, was violations to the drug and alcohol testing procedures involving several flight attendants, unidentified employees and at least one pilot. This issue to me was the most alarming of the two because this is something that should have easily been controlled by the company and they failed not to. Drugs and alcohol in a transportation industry is unacceptable and especially with aircraft that carries hundreds of passengers. Its alarming to see that a company could easily let this go and not hold there employees to a higher standard and allow so many customers be put in a dangerous situation not only with mechanical problems but also drugs and alcohol.