DOES AIR SAFETY HAVE A PRICE?

HUMAN ERROR MAY HAVE CAUSED THE CRASH, BUT THE FAA MAY ALSO TOLERATE HIGH RISK FOR LOW-COST AIRLINES

Every time a commercial airliner meets up with disaster, the flying public is forced to confront dangers it never even knew existed--remember microbursts and wind shear?--and the airlines scramble to alter policies, upgrade technology or retrain their pilots. In the case of the May 11 crash of ValuJet Flight 592, which plunged into the muck of the Everglades and killed all 110 people on board, the safety concerns are so varied--and the questions emerging about the role of the Federal Aviation Administration in regulating low-cost airlines so troubling--that it may be a while before passengers again feel that the skies are...

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