PAUL HUDSON
Paul Hudson is executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, which last week issued a statement entitled “Skies Less Safe” accusing the FAA and DOT of “actively engag[ing] in major programs and actions aimed at reducing existing levels of safety and security.” That statement specifically cited “FAA failure to act to eliminate or substantially reduce the risk of center fuel tank explosions… FAA failure to require fire suppression or fire detection systems in all areas of airliners inaccessible to flight crews… FAA failure to require modern black boxes on U.S. aircraft that record longer periods of cockpit voice and flight data…”

“Our hearts go out to the families of those on EgyptAir 990,” Hudson said on Monday. He lost a daughter on Pan Am 103 and was president of the Families of Pan Am 103. “The cause of the EgyptAir crash is not known, but there are three possibilities: a bomb, a center fuel tank explosion, or reverse thruster problem. From what we know of the crash so far and what we know of similar air disasters, the profile of this would fit one of those causes. It’s probably most similar to a 1991 crash of a Boeing 767 Lauda Air crash in Thailand. That jet had one of its engines go into reverse at altitude. The AP reported yesterday that the EgyptAir plane rolled off Boeing’s assembly line immediately before the Lauda Air plane that crashed in 1991. Wrote AP: ‘Both planes were completed just days before Boeing’s aircraft assemblers went on strike, complaining of fatigue because they were forced to work too much overtime.'”

Hudson noted: “The last three major airline disasters have involved uncontrolled fires or explosions. Government and industry should install fire and explosion suppression technology; it has been used in the military for decades, but is not required in civilian airliners. We have more protection against fire for restaurant customers than for airline passengers. Thirty percent of their operating time, center fuel tanks are in explosive condition in 90 percent of American airliners.”

IBRAHIM HOOPER
Hooper is communications director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which coordinated Islamic religious services for some of the passengers’ families in New York, as did local Muslim leaders, including Ghazi Khankan, director of communications for the Islamic Center of Long Island.
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167