NEW YORK -- In January 1999, a former employee
of an upstate New York company that makes steel
cable for the control systems of passenger jetliners
and military aircraft approached federal prosecutors
with a startling story.

The company, she said, had sold the cable for
years without performing the tests required by its
most demanding customer, the U.S. military, and
did not even own the equipment needed to detect
flaws in its product.

The accusations were serious. Models of many
widely used airplanes, including the Boeing 737,
use steel cable to connect cockpit controls to the
engines, landing gear, rudder and wing surfaces.

Contra Costa Times

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), June 18, 2000