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Captain Jason Kinzer filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Allegiant, which is scheduled to be tried next month. As for the FAA, which is charged with enforcing airline safety in the U.S., it has not brought a single enforcement action against Allegiant in nearly three years. How can that be?
Allegiant Air is an ultra-low-cost carrier primarily known for its rock-bottom fares and its high profit margins. But what really sets it apart from the competition is that its planes have been nearly three and a half times more likely to have serious in-flight mechanical failures than other U.S. Airlines. That figure comes from a seven-month review we conducted of safety records on file with the Federal Aviation Administration. What's equally surprising to us is what some have called the FAA's passive approach to correcting Allegiant's difficulties.
It has to do with a change of policy. Over the last three years, the FAA has switched its priorities from actively enforcing safety rules with fines, warning letters and sanctions-which become part of the public record-to working quietly with the airlines behind the scenes to fix the problems. It may well be what's allowed Allegiant to fly under the radar.
But Loretta Alkalay, who spent 30 years as an FAA lawyer, says it does not absolve the agency of its responsibility to ensure airline safety.
Steve Kroft: The FAA's job is to enforce airline safety, isn't it? Isn't that part of its job?
Loretta Alkalay: Yes. When the FAA knows that an airline has a problem, or there are sufficient red flags, it is supposed to step in and protect the public because airlines have to operate, by statute, to the highest level of safety.
Steve Kroft: And there are red flags here, in the case of Allegiant.
Loretta Alkalay: Yes, there's definitely red flags.
But you wouldn't know it talking with the FAA. We asked John Duncan, the executive director of flight standards, to comment on the more than one hundred serious mechanical incidents we found at Allegiant in a 22-month period ending last October.
Steve Kroft: Multiple engine failures, aborted takeoffs, cabin pressure loss. That's 100 serious incidents.
John Duncan: And we take those very seriously. And we look at each one of them. We look for the root cause, and-- and then we address that root cause, and assure that a fix is put in place to make sure that that problem is resolved and doesn't reoccur.
Steve Kroft: And you're satisfied that all of the problems with Allegiant have been fixed?
John Duncan: We're satisfied that-- that we are-- we are taking the appropriate actions with regard to Allegiant and every other carrier that we work with to make sure that those problems have been-- have been appropriately dealt with.
Looking at the FAA's records, you would have to conclude that that is a very optimistic assessment. Go back to August 17, 2015 -- around the time the FAA switched priorities from enforcement to compliance -- and you can see the differences in their approach. Allegiant Flight 436 was leaving Las Vegas full of passengers when it nearly crashed on takeoff. Barreling down the runway, the pilot had trouble controlling the plane. Running out of asphalt, he made a last-second decision to abort, traveling at 120 knots per hour, barely avoiding disaster.
John Goglia: Something inside him said, "I'm not putting this in the air." And thank God he didn't, because that was-- gonna result in a bad outcome.
The problem turned out to be a missing cotter pin that holds together essential components necessary for the pilot to fly the plane. John Goglia is a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
John Goglia: I mean, this is a critical flight control. So this isn't-- isn't fixing a coffee maker. This is fixing a critical flight component and obviously, that wasn't done adequately.
According to the detailed report from the FAA investigator, Allegiant and its maintenance contractor, AAR, failed to perform procedures that would have caught the error no less than five times. The report called it "a deliberate and systemic act of non-compliance" that had endangered thousands of passengers on more than 200 subsequent Allegiant flights.
The inspector recommended strong enforcement action and maximum fines. But superiors, citing the new compliance philosophy, ignored the recommendations and closed the case.
Loretta Alkalay: Actually, the file called for a much larger investigation, but the FAA just said-- basically letter of correction, which means nothing.
Steve Kroft: So, it wasn't even a slap on the wrist.
Steve Kroft: Or barely a slap on the wrist.
Loretta Alkalay: Well letters of correction are nothing, they are not enforcement action. There's no record. I mean, the FAA knows that there's a letter of correction, but you can't use it to augment a sanction. They're just-- they're basically nothing.
Steve Kroft: Are you aware that your own investigator recommended a heavy fine?
Steve Kroft: And yet, to our knowledge, there was no enforcement action. No fine.
Steve Kroft: Nothing other than what's been described to us as not even a slap on the wrist. That was a major screw up, wasn't it?
John Duncan: This was certainly a major event. And-- and so our charge in these kinds of events is to assure that they don't happen again.
Steve Kroft: This was three years ago. I mean this was 2015. And we've had all these other incidents, these 100 incidents, that have occurred since then. It seems like they're on top of it?
John Duncan: All those incidents have been addressed as I've described multiple times.
Back in 2015, the only people that seemed to be paying attention to Allegiant were reporters at the Tampa Bay Times. The airline has a major hub in St. Petersburg and the paper began keeping track of Allegiant's missteps, digging into records and documenting the potential dangers. The coverage prodded the FAA to undertake a thorough review of Allegiant's operations in April of 2016. Three months later, the FAA concluded there were no serious deficiencies, recertified the airline for five more years and says it has been monitoring ever since without noticing any systemic problems.
But last July, while Allegiant was having a very bad month, we decided to follow up where the Tampa Bay Times had left off to see if the airline had improved its operations. We filed a Freedom of Information request with the FAA asking for more than a year's worth of mechanical interruption summary reports from Allegiant and seven other airlines so we could make a comparison. We received the documents for every airline except Allegiant, which objected to their release.
Steve Kroft: What do you make of that?
John Goglia: Well, obviously, they have something to hide. And you have-- a number of 'em from other airlines, a whole stack from United Airlines. Calls into question why Allegiant is stopping it. You know, is there something there that they don't want to see? Is there something there that the FAA doesn't want you to see, either? So that actually points at both of 'em.
Steve Kroft: Seven other airlines had no problem with us looking at their records.
John Duncan: I appreciate that.
John Duncan: I have no idea what their rationale is in that regard.
Six days after this interview, the FAA overruled Allegiant's objections and produced the documents. They showed, on average, the airline was nearly three and a half times more likely to have mid-air breakdowns than American, United, Delta, JetBlue and Spirit.
"If, God forbid, there is an accident, I think there will be a lot of people saying, 'Well, we knew. We knew and we did nothing.'"
But even more disturbing are new allegations from the ranks of Allegiant's own pilots. Their union president, Captain Daniel Wells, says he's concerned that Allegiant is trying to gain a competitive cost advantage by softening safety standards adhered to by the major airlines. That pilots are being told to think twice before declaring costly emergencies. And that Allegiant's maintenance department tries to talk pilots out of reporting problems with their aircraft to avoid delays and keep the planes moving.
Daniel Wells: What I hear from the Allegiant pilots are-- they get-- a call from maintenance control, from-- who is-- an agent of the company and says, "Y-- you didn't write anything up, did you?" Meaning you didn't notice any maintenance problems on the airplane. And that's a very clear-- message to send to pilots that the company is discouraging you from-- recording maintenance deficiencies.
Steve Kroft: Is that legal?
Daniel Wells: No, because our captains are required to report any mechanical deficiencies of an aircraft.
"Any employee who fails to report safety-related concerns through available channels is in violation of company policies, and may also be in violation of federal regulations."
Steve Kroft: The head of the pilots' union told us that Allegiant's maintenance operation is discouraging pilots from reporting mechanical difficulties on the flights. Would that alarm you?
John Duncan: Certainly discouraging pilots from reporting-- legitimate-- maintenance problems-- would concern me a great deal.
Steve Kroft: --aren't pilots required to report this?
John Duncan: They are. It certainly doesn't meet the safety standards that we would anticipate.
Steve Kroft: Have you ever heard this before?
John Duncan: I have not.
Steve Kroft: Is that something you might look into?
John Duncan: It's something that we do look into on a routine basis. Yes.
Steve Kroft: Is it something you will look into?
John Duncan: It's something we will continue to look into.
It must be noted that there has been a sharp drop-off in the number of Allegiant's service difficulty reports since we notified the airline and the FAA that we were working on this story and began requesting information. It may have to do with the fact that Allegiant replaced ten of its old MD-80s with new aircraft from Airbus. But we do know that this serious incident that occurred in September is not reported in the public record.
Allegiant Flight 514 had just landed in Fresno, California and was rolling to the gate, when it suddenly stopped short as the cabin began to fill up with fumes and smoke. Scott Shuemake, his brother, Chris, and sister-in-law, Shanyl, were on the plane.
Scott: I'll never forget this the most absurd thing I've ever heard in my life. Captain comes on and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've been informed there's-- there's smoke in the cabin. Please start breathing through--"
Steve Kroft: Through your shirt?
Steve Kroft: Was it hard to breathe?
Scott: Not making eye contact.
Chris: Yeah, not making eye contact, blindly handing out wet cocktail napkins.
Chris: And saying, "Breathe through this."
The oxygen masks in the cabin didn't deploy and the passengers say minutes went by before the crew moved to get them off the plane.
Scott: We're like, "Open the damn door. We just need some fresh air. Like, it's okay that, you know, there's a problem. You guys can take your time to figure out what the problem is, but open the door."
Steve Kroft: So, how long were you on the plane?
Scott: Yeah. Literally just-- breathing this-- this white substance.
The captain eventually dropped the stairs at the back of the plane and passengers evacuated one by one and walked across the taxiway to the terminal. But not before receiving one last instruction from the cabin crew.
Shanyl: They said, "Make sure you take--"
Chris: --come on, say, "Take your carry-ons and exit the plane out the rear."
Allegiant has yet to tell passengers what they were breathing, but the airline confirmed to us that the fumes were from Skydrol 4, a hazardous hydraulic fluid. In a brief statement the day of the incident, Allegiant said only that "a mechanical issue arose that caused a visible haze to appear". Quote, "passengers deplaned with any carry-on items" and "proceeded to the terminal"…"per normal procedures."
Shanyl: So it'd look normal.
Scott: Yeah. There was nothing normal about the way we (LAUGH) deplaned that aircraft.
Steve Kroft: --aware with the issues involving Allegiant?
Loretta Alkalay: No. People believe that if they hold a certificate and they're flying, they must be safe. The FAA's on it.
Steve Kroft: But the FAA is not on it, you say.
Loretta Alkalay: It does not appear that they are on it when it comes to Allegiant, no.
Most of the public is also unaware that Allegiant's CEO Maurice Gallagher was one of the founders of Valujet, another low-cost carrier with the same business model as Allegiant. Valujet never recovered from the crash of one of its planes in the Everglades in may of 1996. Loretta Alkalay, like the former NTSB member, John Goglia, says she would never fly Allegiant.
Steve Kroft: Do you know anybody in the industry that-- that flies Allegiant?
Loretta Alkalay: No. (LONG PAUSE) No. And I know that a lot of people talk about how they don't fly Allegiant, so it's very concerning. I know people that worked at the FAA who say they would never fly Allegiant.
Steve Kroft: I mean, that's quite an admission. I mean, this just seems like one of those secrets that everybody knows, and then if you have a plane go down, it'll all come out.
Loretta Alkalay: You know, if, God forbid, there is an accident, I think there will be a lot of people saying, "Well, we knew. We knew and we did nothing."
Produced by Michael Karzis and Vanessa Fica.
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Peace, enigmatically and etymologically, is largely defined by an absence of war. Among all the Christmas songs and carols, the one that grips me without fail is John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1972 lament, 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)'.
I say 'lament', because the honest recognition that 'war is over, if you want it' has yet to be answered. Woosy man that I am, I also have to confess that I'm often reduced to maudlin tears by the kids singing along from the Harlem Community Choir.
The idea that a child being born in the Middle East can bring about geopolitical harmony tends to mark Christians as optimists. I do like to think that all human beings desire peace, and that we can cling to historical scraps of hope — echoes of initiated rapprochements, when conflict and the lust for power, status, control and resources have been subverted by people of good will.
Next year, for example, will mark the 800th anniversary of an Italian named Francis di Bernadone literally risking life and limb to meet up with a bloke named Malik-al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade (those bloody misadventures wherein Christendom took on Muslims, Jews and heretics, in spasmodic attempts to conquer and hold Jerusalem). The Italian became better known, after his death, as Saint Francis of Assisi.
His intended conversationalist was the Sultan of Egypt, a man who'd reportedly responded to Crusaders' atrocities by promising a Byzantine gold piece to anyone who brought him a Christian's head; al-Kamil is better known as the nephew of An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, or 'Saladin', King Richard the Lionheart's noted adversary.
As we hear and/or sing seasonal songs of peace and harmony, I suggest there are some lessons we can learn from that quirky piece of history.
Peace comes with effort and risk.
Some commentators believe Francis crossed enemy lines to chase martyrdom. What most historians agree on is that the saint and his mate, Brother Illuminatus, were perhaps beaten and dragged into the sultan's tent, where Francis declared (not in Arabic, unhelpfully) that they were ambassadors of God. The Christians got a fair hearing from the Saracens, and lived to tell a tale of mutual learning.
"There are no credible sources to suggest that either man changed his chosen worldview. The outcome was respect, rather than conversion or proselytism."
Peace is aided by finding common ground.
Having received short shrift from his co-religionist, the Christian commander Cardinal Pelagius, Francis chose to try his hand with the enemy. The two captured Europeans were initially taken for Muslim Sufi mystics, as they wore woollen robes like the Sufis (the word sufi means 'one who wears wool').
The 38-year-old, Italian-speaking Francis apparently yelled one of his few Arabic words — 'Sultan' — when captured. Francis then chose to greet the 39-year-old al-Kamil with his standard phrase, 'May the Lord give you peace'. This went down well with the Muslim leader, who thought the odd-looking interloper may be a messenger responding to the sultan's peace proposal.
While that was decidedly not the case (the future saint was actually viewed as a heretic by many Europeans), Francis' greeting was similar to the Arabic greeting, Assalam o alaikum ('peace be upon you'). That similarity kept the Europeans inside the tent.
Peace comes from dialogue and humility.
Francis didn't judge, condemn or disparage Islam. Many commentators suggest that both Francis and al-Kamil were deeply influenced in their exchanges, through the other's translated words.