Air Travel Under Cloud
Posted 12th January 2001
by Alan Marston

In the latest of rolling revelations an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 carrying 397 people and an American with two pilots onboard on a test flight avoided a head-on collision and 399 deaths only because pilots looking out their cockpit windows steered their aircraft away from each other. The ongoing issue of deep vein cloating (DVC) in air travellors legs, a life-threatening health condition, continues to lower the public reputation of airline travel safety. Combine this with high fuel costs and the my storm warning instincts recommend everybody involved in the airline industry should fasten your seatbelts, looks like a rough ride directly up ahead. In respect of the near miss, the United States National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary findings, issued yesterday, report that the incident happened largely because the United States Navy ignored procedure, ie, human error with disaster avoided onlybecaused of air-to-air collision warning system did work in both planes. When the American plane went out of the naval radar range, the navy did not coordinate the plane's test flight with the commercial air traffic control centre.

Even less re-assuring is the news that the US agency responsible for air safety initially had trouble tracking down the American plane, which was on an engineering test flight. The point at issue would seem to be will many airlines go out of business? But that's not what concerns me, I don't have shares in an airline company, and neither do the vast majority of people who travel by air - and who keep the planes flying in the financial sense. My worry as an inhabitant of the Antipodes is the affects on my health and well-being when flying to... well almost anywhere, apart from the South Pacific countries. And, as a person who likes to think of himself as cognisant of the bigger picture, I worry about the pollution caused by the airline industry's planes and how that plus the consumption of fossil fuels will affect the viability of the eco-system.

The airline industry is a classic example of corporate worst-practise:

* Consumer of finite resources

* Highly polluting

* Promotion of pleasure principle above all else

* Emphasis on cheapness and hence business focus on cost-cutting

* Inherently dangerous and unhealthy

* Corporate control grouped into exclusive regional cartels prevents honest competition

* Public image way out of line with industrial realities Airline industry in powerful downdraft?

Yes, and about time. I hope a massive PR offensive doesn't pull them out negative spin this time and they are forced to actually do something to address the points above and make air travel safer for the planet and for people, all people.