Editorial: Government seeks to improve safety

Monday, April 20, 1998 | 10:32 a.m.

The U.S. aviation system is one of the safest in the world, with just one major accident per 1 million flights, and the federal government announced last week measures to make air travel even safer.

Without better safety measures, there is an "inevitable prospect of crashes and fatalities rising," Vice President Al Gore said. The number of passengers is expected to increase from 600 million to more than 1 billion by the year 2010. This hike in flights could result in the number of major accidents going from three or four per year to six or seven annually by 2010.

The Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration spent seven months talking with aircraft makers, airlines and labor groups to forge a common agenda. In the past, safety priorities varied by group and often changed with each new accident.

Government regulators will try to reduce accidents among commercial airliners by conducting more rigorous inspections by June and the mandatory installation of enhanced ground warning devices by 2001. In turn, airlines will work to improve cabin safety by limiting the number and size of carry-on bags and cracking down on passengers who interfere with flight crews.

The improved regulations don't stop with commercial airliners. For general aviation -- business jets, civilian planes and helicopters -- the FAA will provide more timely and less costly weather information.

Airline deregulation during the 1980s renewed the public's concern over air safety. It's good to see the government taking measures to step up regulatory efforts to improve airline safety.