Thursday, January 04, 2007
The shows I've been watching these few days on cable tv had left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Those shows ain't nothing great and neither are they comedy shows but shows that involved tragedies. From "Air Crash Investigation" to "Seconds From Disasters", they've shown that human life is indeed fragile. We may be the most intelligent creatures around on earth but without our technology or if something goes wrong with our technology, we're no matter than an ant on the ground. We're then subjected to the forces of nature, just like any other animal.
When people talked about things related to america, be it medicine, technology and military might etc, we have the thought firmly implanted in our minds that they do have one of the best in the word, sometimes even the best. However, they do have their flaws as well. America has long been the world's lone superpower but China is showing the rest of the world that it's catching up. Singapore may be a small country but our education system and even our airliner is one of the best in the world. This then brings us to our main topic. Northwest, United and Alsaka airlines etc are not among the best in the world when people talk about the elite airlines. Yesterday's "Air Crash Investigation" mentioned about the crash of the Alsaka airline into the pacific ocean. All 88 people on board perished in the accident.
However, it was no "accident". Watching how the truth managed to surface after a whistle-blower called the authorities and how investigators fined the company half a million dollars for shoddy work and poor maintenance brought the out anger in me. The whistle-blower was a former worker of alsaka airline who got the sack after he alerted the authorities about how the company was cutting corners during maintenance. After the plane crashed into the ocean, what was even more shocking is that the former worker found out he was directly linked to the accident because he had alerted his superiors that the jackscrew needed to be changed to a new one. Apparently, they ignored his idea. You guessed it, the jackscrew which came loose during the flight played a major part. The lack of grease on it because engineers were under pressure to bring the planes up into the sky so that the company can earn more money. It's sickening to hear of that last sentence. Quoting from a dead passenger's dad "Just because they wanted to earn more money led to the deaths of 88 innocent lives".
The poor former worker never found work in the airline industry and jobs that are related to it just because he wanted to be honest. Well, it's a bad example of how being honest doesn't pay. I respect him because he did what he thought was right and went ahead with his idea even though it could cost him his job. It eventually did. Fining the airline 500 000 us dollars ain't gonna hurt the company much, it can't even bring back 1 life from the accident. I hope those people who are involved will live on with that guilt forever in their lives.
Nowadays whenever I travel, it's either SQ, Thai or even Emirates(not because they are the official sponsor of Arsenal) but because they're one of the best around. SQ is very very expensive but I don't mind paying more for my own safety but also for comfort. SQ has the most leg room for passengers, even for economy class. I know my own national carrier will bring me safely to and back from my destination.
