The 1978 airline deregulation's impact on aviation safety and maintenance practices

Airline Deregulation

Impact on Commercial Airline Industry as a Result of Deregulation

The airline industry in the United States began functioning almost as soon as the Wright brothers made their first flight at the Killdevil Hills in North Carolina. In 1903, mail began to be carried by airplanes over short routes, so the United States government created an agency to help regulate how this was accomplished to make it safe for carriers. This agency, called the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), first regulated mail carriers (since there were no passenger flights at the time), but when passenger flights began the board also dealt with how people would be moved also. The CAB was responsible for all areas of passenger flight such as ticket price, awarding of routes to different carriers, and how the planes were to be maintained. Because the CAB sometimes chose routes and different rewards in favor of one airline over another (in some cases because of a personal relationship (Siddiqi)), deregulation was called for starting as early as the 1940's (Kost). But, an actual act deregulating the airlines did not occur until 1978 when it was determined that it was the best course for the flying public (Siddiqi). There have been good and bad consequences of that deregulation, but the focus here is to determine if deregulating the airlines has led to a greater number of fatalities and crashes because of faulty maintenance. This essay first provides a look at what the 1978 act meant for the airline maintenance field, and then examines how crashes due to maintenance issues were affected during the ten-year periods immediately preceding and following deregulation in 1978.

Deregulation and Airline Crashes due to Improper Maintenance

Several studies have been conducted to try and determine whether deregulation has caused a greater incidence of airline accidents, or at the very least loss of flight time, since deregulation occurred for the airline industry in 1978. The first issue is whether more actual crashes have occurred since that time. Some will point to 1985 which was the worst year in United States airline history. More fatalities occurred that year than had been recorded before or have been since (Logan). It started with the deaths of 70 people (out of 71) on a flight out of Reno, NV which was determined to be maintenance related. The final crash that year was of a DC-9 flying from Newfoundland which caused the deaths of all 256 people on board. The cause was determined to be icing of the wings, but this was seen as an issue that the ground crew had not taken care of during routine maintenance prior to takeoff. Between these two events, 1,190 people were killed in crashes that could all be traced back to improper maintenance and/or pilot error. However, this particular year was an anomaly as far as fatalities, and crashes in general, went. From 1979 through 1988, there were 86 crashes that resulted in fatalities; 16 of those crashes happened in 1985. In the ten years prior to deregulation, 1969-1978, there were 105 airline crashes that could be attributed to the above causes. Also during this period, the worst airline disaster in world airline history occurred outside of Tenerife in Spain. These crashes happened around the world and they were not exclusively American flights; however, the incidence of U.S. disasters was less over this time period also.

There have been very few investigations into whether maintenance has suffered since deregulation has occurred, but the NTSB does keep records of all crashes and the causes for same. There are two divisions of air passenger flight. One is that of the licensed airlines and the other is a category called "general aviation" (Spinks). Deregulation had no effect on general aviation because it concerns flights conducted by private citizens. In his article, Spinks notes that "A ten-year NTSB study reports that during the last several decades, improvements in aviation safety have made commercial flying in the United States the safest form of transportation." This is not due to any form of regulation that has occurred, but it can be said to be partially due to FAA oversight. However, the main cause of this increased attention to good maintenance practices has been the increased competition caused by deregulation (Levin). Carriers want to look good in the public eye, so they have to make sure that their flights consider a great safety record. The report that Spins looked at said that "Although GA [general aviation]aircraft log almost twice as many flight hours as do the airlines, the accident rate per 100,000 flight hours for GA aircraft in 2000 is over twenty times greater than the rate for commercial aircraft." Deregulation has caused a safety gap that is unprecedented. Maintenance is much better than it was during the era of regulation because airlines need the few customers there are out there.

It is sometimes assumed, falsely, that government regulation is actually an improvement over the capitalist system which been the major factor behind the growth of the United States historically. The reason for this seems to be that it is easier to see how the regulations work than it is to see how economic factors work to naturally regulate industries. Of course, this does not always work, but in the case of the airline industry it has.