Regulations and Air Craft Safety

In an opinion piece today in the SF Chronicle Robert A Clifford, a Chicago litigator of air crash victims, inveighs against the FAA for not implementing recommendations of the NTSB to require air-speed warning devices on aircraft — the cause of the Asian crash in San Francisco, though the cause of that low speed is still not known.

Such devices would likely be useful.  Let’s get it done. However, what strikes me as odd is that his ire is directed at the federal bureau which, by requiring the devices, would surely raise howled objections from those who don’t like regulation, and invite lobbyists of the powerful airlines industry to descend from their perches and foul the floors of congress.

Why not address this call to the airline manufacturers themselves: the Boeing, Lockeed and Airbus designers?  Surely the installation of such devices, the technology for which exists, can not be a major problem, cannot cost very much money.

As is usual, this is why there is regulation — because those who can and should do the right thing will not and do not do it.

For shame.