These past few weeks have been a nightmare for many air-travel passengers in the USA.  Those travel problems are likely to continue for weeks or months to come.  They may remain a real travel nuisance during the entire summer travel season if some solution is not found.

It all started just a few weeks ago, when a Congressional Commitee on Air Travel Safety discovered that Southwest Airlines had been flying hundreds of potentially unsafe airlines for many months because of lapses in the safety checks conducted by the government safety inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  The top bureaucrats from our Federal Aviation Administration were chastised for allowing this to happen.  They in turn applied a $10 million dollar fine against Southwest Airlines for violation of those safety standards.  Southwest Airlines immediately grounded hundreds of their aircraft and cancelled numerous flights. 

Stung by the Congressional rebuke, the FAA immediately stepped up its safety inspection for all US Airlines.  They found numerous safety violations. This week, American Airlines grounded hundreds of its aircraft and cancelled thousands of flights.  Other airlines are likely to follow.  These cancellations have resulted in numerous stranded passengers at airports all over the USA.  They caused thousands of passengers to alter or cancel their travel plans.

This mess is really caused by typical bureaucratic bungling and political manuvering.  Many of the newly discovered safety violations are miniscule technical violations of complex safety regulations.  The actual danger caused by some of the violations are almost non existant.  The aircraft could safely fly without comprimising safety while the airlines bring everything up to technical standards.  Unfortunately, the FAA, having been stung by the congretional rebuke, is now applying every minute standard in the regulation books.  The airlines are immediately grounding all aircraft until they bring them up to the exacting standards, because they do not want to risk hefty fines from the FAA.

We need a clear reasonable leader to achieve some workable compromise to this dilemna.  Unfortunately, clear reasonable leaders are hard to find in our government.  If they do not solve this problem soon, it may be a terrible summer for air passengers traveling in the USA.