Aviation accidents are serious and are a very real possibility for injury in the United States. Oftentimes, airplane accidents involve small private planes piloted by recreational fliers or by relatively inexperienced flyers. Internationally, plane accidents are much more common than they are in America. Today, a plane crashed into a home in Malaysia, causing one death. Also this month, 14 individuals were killed in a plane crash at an airport in Nigeria.
Still, in the United States plane crashes and other aviation accidents aren't unheard of. For example, there was a shocking plane accident at the Santa Monica Airport in California at the end of last month. Also last month, another plane crash killed for people in Arizona. Some of these crashes are due to pilot error, whereas others may be due to a failure to inspect the plane correctly or a plane malfunction.
Currently, there is some concern because of the fact that many employees in the Federal Aviation Administration have been furloughed as a part of the current government shutdown. According to CBS News, many FAA safety inspectors are among the 800,000 employees that were furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. There is concern about how the lack of inspectors will affect airlines, and there is fear that this will cause higher probability for a crash.
The FAA furloughed more than 15,000 administration employees, which is a third of the FAA's workforce. This includes about 3,000 workers that focus specifically on air safety. Many government employees are shocked that the federal government did not considered the FAA inspectors high priority and did not choose to keep them working during the shutdown. The FAA claims that safety is still their top priority and that the aviation accidents will be avoided at all costs.
Some air safety advocates say that the lack of FAA inspectors means that there will be no oversight of the air safety system in the country. FAA officials are supposed to inspect planes regularly before they take off. Without the FAA workers on the job, some of these planes may be minimally inspected or not inspected at all. This can be a serious cause for concern.
Also, because of the government shutdown, other federal agencies are not able to investigate accidents that happened recently. For example, the National Transportation Safety Board has not been able to investigate many accidents frequently, and has had a hard time working through reports. This means that many individuals may not get the reports that are necessary to get compensation for the crash.
Airplanes aren't the only aircraft that can sometimes cause serious accidents. Earlier this week, a helicopter spiraled into the ocean shortly after lift-off from an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Four people were taken from the water where the helicopter crashed and put on a supply boat, which then took the victims back to the platform that they had come from. The helicopter was headed to Louisiana to drop off three workers who were just ending their shift on the oil platform.
The incident happened at about 7:30 a.m., and the Coast Guard was notified of the accident by individuals on the supply ship that discovered the victims in the water, The Coast Guard medevaced one person with back injuries by helicopter to the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans and Acadian Air took another three people to the same hospital later in the day. If you have been injured or if your loved one was killed in an aviation accident, make sure to contact a personal injury lawyer today!