Glenn Reynolds gets the story, but misses the big picture in this blog post and news article about a serious plane accident that could have resulted in a plane crash and the loss of 140 lives.
An Alaska Airlines jet with a foot-long hole in its fuselage was forced to make an emergency descent from 26,000 feet and return to Sea-Tac Airport Monday after the plane lost cabin pressure.
The MD-80 jet, which had been en route to Burbank, Calif., landed safely and none of the 140 passengers was hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, as is Alaska Airlines.
An aviation expert close to the investigation said the jet was probably struck by a baggage cart while at Sea-Tac and the incident was not reported before the plane took off for Burbank.The damaged area of the plane would have been weakened by the ramp incident and the aluminum skin then likely ruptured once the jet neared its cruising altitude, according to this person, who did not want to be identified.
Why wasn’t the incident reported? Because the airline is outsourcing jobs to cut costs. Apparently, this outsourcing doesn’t include educating people who work around airplanes on the problems inherent in damaging the aircraft.
Earlier this year, the airline eliminated more than 400 unionized baggage handling jobs at Sea-Tac Airport as part of a cost-savings move. That work was outsourced to Menzies Aviation, which is based in the United Kingdom.
Looks like some unions still have their uses. Funny, that.
Sheesh, somebody must pull a plug on that sorry Alaska Airlines outfit. I still shudder (a bit) remembering that I (and my whole extended family) was on the Puerto Vallarta – San Francisco flight and, most probably, on the same plane that crashed 10 days later. All because of maintenance faults caused by the reduction of the maintenance expenses.