Posted on 12/05/2001 10:26:42 AM PST by NC Conservative
Former senior Federal Aviation Administration official Linda Hall Daschle, wife of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was cited in a report on Wednesday for failing to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy she announced in 1996 against violent airline passengers - a pledge that some say could have prevented the 9/11 terrorist hijackings that killed 4,000 Americans had it not been ignored.
With Mrs. Daschle serving, first as Deputy FAA Administrator and then as Acting FAA Administrator from 1993 to 1997, the agency received hundreds of complaints throughout the 1990's about passengers who had become unruly, assaulted flight crews and threatened fellow passengers while in flight.
In some cases, the worst offenders had even brandished knives, the same technique used by Osama bin Laden's kamikaze hijackers three months ago to subdue the crews of four aircraft.
Only after pilots, flight attendants and independent safety experts repeatedly warned of the potential for dire consequences unless action was taken, Daschle promised stricter enforcement.
"We will not tolerate any interference with the vital safety functions performed by crew members," the powerful Democrat's wife pledged.
However, instead of cracking down, "the FAA went easier on unruly passengers during the 4 full years after the 'zero tolerance' advisory was issued," reports USA Today.
"It's beyond amazing. It's criminal," said Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, of the FAA's lethargic performance under Mrs. Daschle and her successors.
"They acted as if they didn't care," Friend told USA Today.
The airline regulatory agency's lapses include:
A failure to investigate the claims of hundreds of victims and witnesses to violent midair altercations that drew airport police once the plane had landed.
A decision to go easy on even the most dangerous offenders - including some who succeeded in breaking into the cockpit in mid-flight armed with knives - sending warning letters and leveling fines in lieu of any serious enforcement. (The percentage of those fined actually dropped after Daschle's "zero tolerance" pledge.)
And the destruction of FAA case files on in-flight violence that now makes it impossible to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of the midair mayhem in the years before the 9/11 attacks.
Even as internal debates raged over the extent of the threat posed by unruly passengers, senior FAA officials dismissed any prospective connection to potential hijackings.
"Even when we had discussions about hijacking, someone would say, 'Why are we talking about this at all? Hijackings never happen.'"
In a letter to an FAA security official five years after Mrs. Daschle promised to clamp down on air rage, one flight attendant complained about an incident involving a knife wielding passenger who had broken into the cockpit of her Alaska Airlines plane, noting that it showed how easily terrorists might employ the same tactics.
"It could be you or your loved one onboard a flight next time an air rage or even hijacking incident occurs," warned Ginny Cavins, who pleaded with the FAA to ban knives and fortify cockpit doors.
Just two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, FAA Security Director Michael Canavan told Cavins that decision was up to the airlines.
Linda Hall Daschle is now a lobbyist for Northwest and American Airlines.
i did for about 4 to 6 weeks. i do want truth, and as far as i am concerned, like you, i think this article goes off the deep end.
on the other hand, our democratic leaders are back to politics as usual. they say the right thing in public, but stonewall and fight behind closed doors.
btw-thanks for your kind words and giving me the benefit of the doubt.
What's up with that?
This says nothing about her lobbying activities during that time. Did she lobby in favor of the FAA or the airlines. As we know they often differ as to goals.
"Bush Administration was appointed by the Supremes to head the FAA over 9 months before 9/11."
Over 9 months before 9/11 was probably before Bush was sworn in. Therefore Bush inherited something that was instigated by and during the Clinton Admin. If the Supremes had made a ruling it probably means that a lawsuit was involved. Where was Mrs. Daschle during the beginning of this litigation? What part did she play in fomenting this problem that the Supremes had to settle.
Was 9/11 therefore Bush's fault?
"The security at Logan and NYC were all political appointees of Repuke governors of those states."
There have been previous threads on FR about the political shennanigans of the Logan and NYC security. Believe me, the politics involved were not entirely steered and directed by the governors of either state. They did sign off on what the airline and heaven knows what else caused to happen. And the lobbyists certainly had a hand in it. Did this begin during or after Mrs. Daschle's stint at the FAA?
There were a series of increasingly horrific terrorist events that were perpetrated against this country during the Clinton administration. These events were allowed to escalate over time (since '93) and the cumulative consequences of inaction are now obvious. The fact is, he should have done far more to ward off this threat. In true Clintonian fashion, there was a lot more talk than action. Now that he's out of office we hear excuses that events were simply beyond his control.
Ummmm, see, they didn't care. Keep that between us though.
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Hypocrits.
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