As I’ve said here repeatedly, airline safety and maintenance is the next big story in air travel.
Re that plane crash that killed at least 45 in Madrid today: The plane was an MD-80, a model of aging aircraft that has had well-documented safety problems in the last year. It was operated by a cost-cutting, financially troubled airline. (More-current reports put the number of dead in Madrid at 150.)
Where did that airplane come from, and what is its maintenance history? Those are the two key questions, and I’ll get back to this once I know the answers. These are questions that, I fear, we’ll be asking more often in the future as the true extent of the safety/maintenance crisis becomes more clear.
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