Clipping Wings in the Airline Industry

For the second time in two weeks, two airlines at a local Washington airport clipped wings while on the tarmac waiting for permission to depart. The first incident happened at National Airport near downtown DC and the second happened at Dulles Airport on the outskirts of the city. In both cases, the airliners were sitting on the tarmac or on the taxiways waiting for permission to pushback and line up for take off. What the media makes it sound like is that both of these incidents either happened in mid-air or while they were taking off. I think it's unfair the way the media and people in general are portraying this incident. That's not to say I excuse the mishap but I feel everyone is making it worse than it actually is.

The damage to both the planes and the delays that it resulted in were unfortunate and shouldnt' have happened in the first place but what many people who complain about these incidents fail to realize is that parking a plane isn't as easy as it seems. Don't think so? Think of it in this context. Just go to any parking lot and look at how more than half the people park their cars. They aren't lined up in the center of their space a lot of times, and other times they are either on the lines or parked in their spots crooked. So apparently it's hard enough for people with a vehicle only ten feet long. Imagine doing the same thing with something a hundred plus feet long with wings sticking out the sides (which you can't see) whiles sitting about a story off the ground all while rushing to get things parked so that you can get refueled and back in the air within a very short time. Knowing all that it's a wonder that more of such incidents don't occur.

There have been reports about how there have been near-collisions in the air or how planes have had pilots fall asleep and leaving the planes on autopilot while they flew past their destinations. All that being said, the airline industry is obviously getting a bad rap. It's not being helped by the fact that more airlines are looking to increase baggage charges either. That being said it's easy to understand why there is an increasing urgency being felt within the industry. Since September 11th there has been a shift overall in how the airline industry is viewed and whether it is still as safe as it once was or at least as it was once perceived and it's true. While numbers are finally returning to levels that they were at prior to 9/11, it still doesn't mean that the services and timeliness enjoyed at that time are still in place. People's patience is down and expectations are up. People want air travel to be safe but not inconvenient. They want it comfortable but speedy. This leads to the desire to rush around and that's when incidents like this can and do occur.

Last year similar incidents occured in Europe as well. Thankfully there were no fatalities involved with the clipping of wings but it's a delay that most of the airlines involved can do without. It doesn't help their safety records and reputation either. I think rather than blowing these things out of proportion and then intimating that the airline industry is a proverbial trainwreck in the sky, we need to step back and realize that most of the airports in the country were designed at a time when air travel was a luxury and not as common as bus travel. Most airports aren't equipped or designed to handle the loads they experience these days though most passengers expect that service should be the same as when air travel was a true luxury. In some cases it does happen but it's becoming rarer. I don't think the incidents at National and Dulles are harbingers of a decline in safety in the airline industry; on the contrary, I think they are indicators of the fact that the industry is outgrowing the capacity and capabilities to operate safely at current rates.