If you Fly...be afraid...be very afraid...

Anyone that follows US news may be aware of the safety fiasco concerning concerning Southwest Airlines and safety oversight. Lenghty congressional hearings last winter revealed gross inadequacies and incompetence.

Now the same issues are alive and well in Canada.



Ground Bill C-7: Letting airlines rule over passenger safety is a really bad idea
GREG HOLBROOK

Special to Globe and Mail Update

June 17, 2008 at 11:16 PM EDT

News Flash: U.S. airlines knowingly carried millions of passengers on planes that were so poorly maintained they were not fit to fly. Should Canadian travellers care about this alarming revelation and other signs of trouble Stateside?

You bet. The same economic motives and regulatory opportunities that have led to the crisis in aviation safety south of the border exist in Canada today. Canadian airlines face the same soaring fuel bills, which run anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 with every trip to the pump. Meanwhile, Transport Canada is being even more aggressive than its U.S. counterpart in its headlong rush to offload responsibility for aviation-safety oversight. Canadian airlines are now supposed to identify and fix safety problems with little intervention from the regulator.

Transport Canada calls this new approach Safety Management Systems (SMS). Just like the cozy relationship between the regulator and the aviation industry south of the border that is now the subject of a special congressional investigation, SMS is a partnership between Transport Canada and the aviation industry here.

Safety levels, among other decisions that affect the bottom line, are now set by Canadian airline executives, not by government in the public interest.

SMS relies on airlines to self-report violations of the safety regulations. To encourage this, Ottawa is proposing changes to the Aeronautics Act. Bill C-7 would exempt airlines from enforcement action and fines they once were subject to when safety rules were broken. As further incentive to induce self-incrimination, Ottawa would guarantee confidentiality to airlines that turn themselves in after a cabin fire, near-miss or other incident.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080617.wcomment0618/BNStory/specialComment/home

The paragraph below taken from the article posted above very poignantly summs up why people who fly in Canada should be very concerned...

"Here's a troubling scenario: Now that the airlines are able to set the level of risk that's acceptable to them, one can imagine airlines deciding that it's acceptable to travel with a smaller surplus of fuel, what with skyrocketing prices. This might save money on gas but the consequences of running out because a flight has been extended due to bad weather, traffic, or emergency could be calamitous."