Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Aviation Update

On this, the 16th anniversary of the TWA 800 crash in 1996, we still know very little about the definitive cause of that tragedy.  Jack Cashill has thoughts.

Meanwhile, the probable causes of several other somewhat mysterious crashes remain themselves mysterious, as in scant details released by the Paris offices of the BEA.   One crash investigation that has received considerable attention is the one for Air France 447, almost certainly pilot error (multiple pilots) as well as a system error (flying into bad weather).  But the others, including two involving crashes into the ocean, have yet to trigger any perceptible media curiosity.  

Despite those dark moments flying remains a very safe form of transportation.  The US safety record is to be admired through the world, despite a few needles in the food.  The bigger worry here locally is whether the USPS will re-up their contract with Fed Ex to haul first class and priority mail when it comes up for renewal next year.  Losing that contract would be a huge blow to both Fed Ex and Memphis, especially with Delta having already cut flights in half since taking over Northwest several years ago.  One has to believe there will be some nuclear-level politics involved in that process during the upcoming months.     

2 comments:

Right Truth said...

I didn't realize USPS had a contract with FedEX. Never really thought about it. Someone should tell Fred that "he didn't build that company, somebody else did it for him", ha.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

McCloud said...

Yeah, wonder how many other people knew that their First Class mail was getting there thanks to Fred Smith? I guess some could view it as government largesse but I prefer to see it as Fed Ex doing something USPS could and should be doing but can't.

That said, USPS has a huge bargaining chip right now, which they can dangle through the election season. Wonder how much political influence comes into these contracts?