Airline Safety Essay Research Paper What Should — страница 3

hearings. ALPA has initiated or participated in most of the numerous safety improvements over the years that have made U.S. airline travel the safest mode of transportation. Congressman Bud Shuster is a fourteen term Member of the Congress of the United States who serves as the Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which includes jurisdiction over highways, transit, railroads, aviation, water resources, economic development, Merchant Marine, Coast Guard, and public buildings and grounds. He has been a principal author of much of America’s transportation legislation during the past two decades, which includes the Surface Transportation Act of 1982, the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987, and the landmark Intermodal

Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), the most historic transportation legislation since President Eisenhower and the Congress created the Interstate Highway System in 1956. He is very devoted to improving airline safety and saving lives. This is very obvious if you read the laws that he helped pass. James Oberstar is a congressman from the 8th district in Minnesota. He is the Senior Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Even though he is of a different political party than Congressman Shuster, he still shares similar beliefs. They both are in favor of increased regulations, but Oberstar is more in favor of harsher regulations. He is always proposing amendments to help fund the NTSB. The last major one he attempted was in July of 1996. It

asked for 5 million dollars to be given to the NTSB so that they could hire 31 new specialists. Analysis and Discussion Section It is tough to say exactly what should be done regarding airline safety regulations. The government should increase the regulations and make penalties harsher. More government funding should be given to the NTSB to increase their range and power. If they could hire more specialists for targeted danger areas, than hopefully, these accidents could be minimized. Also, the NTSB should place tougher regulations on all aspects of airline safety. If this is done, airlines will have to pay more, thus leading to higher ticket prices, but in the long run it is worth it. You can’t put a price on human life, and if more funding isn’t given to see this out, that

is exactly what would be happening. On the other hand, some think differently. The government should not increase funding of the NTSB and not spend tons of money on something that can to completely be prevented. Air travel is still the safest way to go, so if money is going to be used on saving lives, it should first be directed towards something like automobile safety. If regulations are increased than the public is paying for it twice. They have to pay the taxes to fund the NTSB, and then pay the higher ticket prices that the airlines will have to create due to their higher safety expenses. Saving lives is important, however there is only so much that can be done. Even if every airplane suits every regulation perfectly, there will still be accidents. Human error and nature will

still cause its fair share of disasters, and wasting money trying to stop nature is just stupid. For the same money, you could save more lives if you attack the safety regulations on other things, like cars. No matter what method that the government chooses to use, people will be angry. It is and will always be a controversial issue.