Aviation is still a very safe form of transport with 28 fatal accidents (involving 749 fatalities) last year. And the industry's total accident rate now averages 1.1 accidents for every 2 million departures, a pretty reassuring figure to drop into conversationrnBut the constant improvement in flight safety that has taken place since man first flew is stagnating and the industry needs to ask why.rnBut projecting forward'stagnation of improvement' may actually be a good outcome if the Colgan Air tragedy in Buffalo foretells the way things could be developing.The new US Administration, to its credit, has shone a torch on what went wrong on 12th February 2009 - huge economic pressures on managers to deliver and a travelling public who are getting used to paying uneconomic fares, poor governance structures at the heart of businesses, regulation with a 'light' touch and exploitation of an over-supply of labour all played their part.
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