What exactly are you implying about the Orlando incident?
That Southwest are aware of a potentially dangerous APU and have decided to ignore it, not report the incident and fly a potentially unsafe aircraft and risk a crash?
The problem with these conspiracy theories are they would require the collusion of thousands of aircraft engineers, airline staff and management.
However you calculate the statistics on hull losses, passenger mortality or number of reportable accidents, I am afraid that Southwest comes out top. This is not a freak anomoly. Southwest is one of the largest carriers in the world in terms of KPM, total flights and passenger numbers.
Make no mistake. I am not saying that the legacy carriers are unsafe. You will not find that in any of my arguments against them. I am saying that the US airline industry is incredibly safe. That needs to be safeguarded, but at this point, there is no particular cause for serious concern.
I am saying that it is irresponsible and inaccurate to suggest that Southwest are unsafe, notwithstanding the incidents you cite. It is certainly foolhardy to attempt to compare their safety standards with the legacies because the statistics simply do not stack up to support it. ALL the airlines have had compliance issues at some time.
|