We ran out of money for flashlights

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2005 by Charles Peters

Speaking of safety, did you know that although up to 90 percent of airline maintenance is performed at night, FAA inspectors spend only 3 percent of their time conducting night-time inspections? This and other troubling facts named up by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General prompted Margaret Warner of the "Jim Lehrer Show" to interview Marion Blakey, the FAA administrator, on June 9.

Warner: "So, [what] is your reaction to this report card?"

Blakey: "Well I think it's fundamentally flawed. In fact, we see it as ioned approach to looking at safety oversight because, in fact, these days it's not about standing over someone's shoulder in the middle of the night and seeing if they're turning the wrench in the right direction. It's really about looking to see that the carrier, that the repair stations, those who are providing this kind of service, have very strong safety systems in place. And it's about analyzing the data to see what the data tell us about where there really is risk."

Lazy administrators and lazy inspectors love to hide behind this kind of bureaucratic B.S. When a couple of years ago, I asked the Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security about what appeared to be several obvious holes in the nation's security, I was told, don't worry, "we have a system of systems." You learn in Washington to ask, exactly what is the system? And what is the data you're going to analyze? If the system is no good, good data doesn't help. And if the data is not reliable, the greatest system won't work. And how can you know the data gives a true picture without looking over some real shoulders as real wrenches are being turned?