The following is an excerpt from Newsweek magazine 2/21/2000 for educational purposes:

As the investigation continues, the NTSB is also likely to take a look at whether the FAA may have been lax in correcting problems at the airline. For more than a year, Federal law enforcement agencies have been investigating supervisors at Alaskan Airlines' maintenance facility in Oakland, Calif., for falsifying maintenance records. (An Alaska Airlines' spokesman says they are cooperating with investigators.) At one point, according to internal government documents, an FAA inspector recommended the airline be fined $8.7 million for record-keeping violations. But agency brass knocked the fine down to $44,000, claiming passenger safety was never at risk. Now some investigators want to know if the FAA, long accused of being too soft on the airline industry, may have let Alaskan Airlines off too easily. The FAA says it recently assigned new supervisors to oversee the airline. A welcome change, but one that may have come at a very high price."

This type of disclosure doesn't lend one to a warm fuzzy feeling when it comes to flying the friendly skies!

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.XNet), February 17, 2000

Answers

Sorry, that reduced fine should be $44,000.

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.XNet), February 19, 2000.