Andrew Sarangan wrote:

I did not suggest that the victims parents should sue
SWA. However, for their peace of mind, they do deserve
an answer as to why this freak accident happened.

They will eventually get the best information the NTSB can give.
They will sue, because ultimately, and always, it comes down
to money. That's how we punish those who do not serve us well,
or at least those most accessible.

The injured families will get a small fraction, in recompense,
of the millions which have been saved by, for example: not adding
low minimums approaches to MDW's 13C which at least match those on
31C, in order to avoid compounding ORD traffic congestion; not using
the power of Eminent Domain, or at least the power of the Daley
machine to make of MDW what it should be, in the decades since DC-3's
and CV-580's; not spreading more of the air traffic burden to Gary,
or DuPage, or Rockford, or any of a number of other politically
inexpedient measures.

Those trapped by these rock-hard realities are not only the rare
crash victims and families, whose losses are immeasurable and not
truly compensable. The others, always in the middle from beginning
to end of every flight, are the airline cockpit crew members of whom
the business can require the wisdom of a Solomon, the deft touch of
a surgeon, and the clairvoyance of a Joan of Arc. To sort and select
from a menu of imperfect solutions and execute precisely in the midst
of a unique four-dimensional dynamic, also depends on the accuracy
and timeliness of information obtained from a mixture of human and
non-human sources outside of the airplane. An imperfection of focus
or judgment or accuracy on a snowy winter's night can sell a million
early editions the next morning.

Recent years have given Airline crews some fine new equipment with
which to work, and a fifty percent reduction in pay for doing that work;
a threat environment not seen here at home even during World War Two;
a massive loss of jobs, a loss of pay and benefits for active employees,
and a loss of pensions and benefits for our retirees who lack financial
alternatives. Stock holders have been left with little or nothing in
too many cases to list here. But, ignoring the effects of 9/11, that's
the way deregulation was supposed to work, and only the ultimate time
table was impossible to predict thirty years ago.

The next wave to wash over our industry will be that of Foreign
Ownership and Control. It's already gaining formal consideration in
our legislature. Will the Pound, Franc, Mark, Yen, or Riyal do more than
the dollar has done to create a safe and available and pleasant
air travel experience? Of course they will not, and the amount of
influence US citizens can exert to make needed improvements in Airline
safety and service can be expected to erode even further as the next
phase of change sweeps over our Airline industry.

If one wonders whether we are doing all we can do now, just wait until
the answers to questions such as those about the future of airports
like MDW lie not in the hands of politicians like Mayor Daley, but in
international agreements with governments bound to, and by, Saudi Kings,
Japanese Oligarchs, and the Communist Party of China.


Jack