Turbulent Times for America's Airlines

Making News

Cool Reception for Jimmy Carter in Israel ()

Former President Jimmy Carter said today he was "distressed" by Hamas rocket fire into Israeli border towns and that the deliberate effort to kill innocent civilians is a "despicable crime." But he still plans to meet with the leader of Hamas in Syria. The latest reports say the government of Ehud Olmert has refused to help the US Secret Service protect Carter while he's in Israel. Joel Greenberg of the Chicago Tribune was with Carter today in the Israeli town of S'derot.

Guests:

• Joel Greenberg: Jerusalem Correspondent, Chicago Tribune

Links:

• Carter's (2002) Nobel Prize
• Carter's 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid'

Main Topic

Turbulent Times for America's Airlines ()

Since deregulation, America's airlines have expanded by a factor of ten and there has not been a major crash since 2001. But the recent grounding of thousands of flights, which stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers, and evidence that the Federal Aviation Administration is too cozy with the companies it regulates have raised concerns about safety. Whistle-blowing FAA inspectors told Congress that Southwest Airlines had been allowed to skip inspections for fuselage cracks for as long as nine months. Southwest was fined $10 million, and the FAA began an "industry-wide audit."  Meantime, smaller airlines have gone under or filed for bankruptcy, and big ones are talking about mergers. Is the agency trying to reassert itself and reassure the flying public that all is well? Were passengers really at risk? With airlines folding, going bankrupt and looking at mergers, are the industry and its passengers in for a troubled future?

Guests:

• Scott McCartney: Airline Reporter, Wall Street Journal
• Kate Hanni: Founder, Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights
• Robert Ditchey: Airline management consultant
• Mik Boyd: President, Boyd Group
• Marsha Coleman-Adebayo: President, No Fear Institute

Links:

• FAA on improvements to inspection program
• Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act of 2002

Reporter's Notebook

Of Atom Smashing and Black Holes ()

The Large Hadron Collider now being completed near Geneva, Switzerland, will accelerate atomic particles to almost the speed of light, crash them into each other and generate energies more powerful than the sun. This most complex piece of scientific equipment ever built, which will duplicate conditions like those that existed just after the Big Bang that created the Universe, might answer is why the universe composed of matter. But some critics say not even that would be worth the possible risks, fearing that it could also create a black hole with the capacity to swallow the Earth.  John Johnson of the Los Angeles Times has more on the $8 billion LHC.

Guests:

• John Johnson: Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times