So the majority of the airline crashes that I’ve covered here have been based in the United States, though yes, there have been others like Tenerife, that happened overseas.  In the US, airline crashes – as long as they are not the result of criminal issues like a hijacking or the like – are treated as civilian issues.  We have a civilian organization underneath the Department of Transportation that goes in, looks at all the details and makes a determination.  If it’s an accident, that’s one thing.  But if it’s due to negligence, like Alaska Airlines flight 261, or American Airlines flight 191 where maintenance cut corners, the airline can get fined.

But what if the United States treated air crash investigations like Italy or Greece did – like criminal investigations?  Would that give the airline more impetus to not cut corners?

There’s an article on that very subject that was just published on TheHill.com, and it’s a unique take on the subject.  They argue that if you use the same type of rules that a 2002 law put into place to prevent things like Enron from happening on the financial side of things (or risk penalties of fines in the millions of dollars and/or jail time), but instead for airline safety, would that help the industry?  It’s honestly an interesting take.  But then again, why should a CEO be more apt to sign off on his accounting practices, and not the safety of the aircraft that they produce?

Head on over and read the link if you’re interested.