f 01T OR I At S OP»mOHS 11TTf R$ TO THf tOlTOR
ValuJet forces people
to question regulations
■ OUR OPINION: Plane
crash could have been
avoided
The word that is the mast
apparent in the headlines
•bout the «rash of Flight 592
ia “Valujet .** All 109 passen
gem who died on the flight
probably selected this air
line. tmated in Atlanta by
President lewis Jordan in
October of 1993, for the
connotation of this very
word Vaiujet It sounds just
loo good to be true
Hut it was not the name of
the company that aroused
suspicion in the Federal
Aviation Administration
(FAA). but the six bizarre
incidents that have occurred
in the last two years of the
airline's existence.
On June 8, 1995, a Vaiujet
IXI-9's engines taught fire in
Atlanta All of the passen
gets were evacuated, and
the plane was destroyed
According to the National
Transportation Safety
Hoard, corrosion in this par
ticular engine had not lawn
repaired at a Turkish repair
company and instead had
lawn txrvered over
The next incident did not
occur until fan 12, 1998,
when another tX#-9 slid into
a snowbank at Dulles Air
port in Washington, D.C. At
this point, the FAA still had
not begun an investigation
of the rapidly growing air
line
Surprisingly enough, the
third incident, occurring
only 14 days alter the Dulles
incident, was ignored by the
FAA as well.
Though the public may he
persuaded to believe that
those incidents were not a
result of FAA negligence,
there is no way the public
can accept that an airplane
skidding off <*f an Atlanta
runway U a regular occur*
ranee.
Finally, after the Fab I,
1998, incident in which a
IX: « i lira burst upon land
ing in Nash villa. Tent). the
FAA showed torn© concern
Valujwt Airline* wu con
fronted with two inspec
tions: a seven day
inspection and a 120-day
■"special emphasis tnspwc
lion" that was still under
way whan the latest plana
crashed into the Florida
Hvarglades last Saturday
Despite the investigation,
the sixth incident, involving
a rx>® rolling off of a
Savannah, tia.. tunway on
Fab 2H. still took place
Unless Valufel specializes
in providing inexperienced
pilots, one is lad to believe
the planes are at fault for
these disturbing events.
The Mt Donnell Douglas
fJC*9 ha* hewn flving since
1963 Valujet is the Iasi air
line to continue pun basing
thew- outdated flying con
traptions. Most of the
anginas of these particular
DC-9* were purctiased from
a Turkish airline, most like
ly to lessen costs.
With all of this know!
edga, it i* incredibly easy to
wonder if the families of
100 people would now ha
mourning if the FAA had
taken action earlier Possi
bly. if the administration
had stopped ValuJet's
increasing service* instead
of idly standing by and
wan lung this company dou
ble its fleet in April, res
cuers would not be
describing a gruesome scene
in a Florida swamp where
bodies are lining pulled from
the water* in bits anti
pieces.
EXCUSE fA£,
9VT TViM So^G
WAS A us.
COPvpiGWT.
i
**«*S < T~*
I c***s X **»*» *• ■»*
?HC RC m4'«.W 0<j4T »v _
£X/# M/*W t?K>*rj KKICV
inifRS
Lee has integrity
1 rant Hobby in imj, «
year after hU li-rin » ASIJO
pnnitkn)
Having well aoquntnl
*d with N4i;. I feel v«ry ton
(idem kit supporting hl» oandb
dairy (or City Council, Ward 3.
Thnnigh thw i ami ihin. Bobby‘a
vision ha* remained dear. jm»
totting our natural iwoun r* It
on* oftha mud important duties
w Hava as human tuning*
Bobby Isv ha* the integrity
and umunitment to Improve (he
quality dl Eugene Good <4tv ami
environmental planning tain*
steady work and creative solu
I tons Etenisr yum right to vote
on May 21
Frank E. Connor
EuQana
not pleasant
lust wanted U> drop the Emmr
aid this note to let you know !
thought kelly Andersaon* opin
km jn«*:» U HM, Miy l) wu right
•(tout the panhandlers
Walking down to ('.ofltw Peo
pie <>n an evening is not pleas
ans. even (or a guy.
What get* mm die rru.st ;s that
If these people truly wanted to
gut th*or ar t together there ate
organisation* and pl« m willing
to help In Portland there is a
wonderful operation tailed
Union Gospel Mlttkm, but they
won’t help unless participants
are committed and stay off drugs
and crime
No one needs to go hungry or
begging — the money they ask
for in most cases goes exactly
where Anders* >n pointed to.
iMtaei Sterner
Poimcal Science
Autzen dangerous
The Transportation Review
Committee is currently working
toward solutions to help allevi
ate the pressure on the current
parking situation on campus
One of the proposed alterna
tives currently under review is
to ban overnight parking in the
Bean parking lot This measure
will pre\ent residence hall stu
dents from keeping their vebU
do* on campus The committee
has proposed that ail overnight
parking («> relegated to the
Aulren Stadium parking lot.
This action i» not acceptable.
By placing all overnight park
ing at Autren Stadium, there am
great security risks to be con
sidered Not onlv will 24-hour
security have to be implement
<><l to insure the safety of stu
dents vehicles, but the safely of
students who travel between the
residence halls and the parking
lot will b» compromised
It is widely known that moat
residence hall students utilise
their vehicles during nighttime
hours and weekends
The walking and cycling path
through Alton Baker Park and
over the Autren footbridge is
fairly long, and potentially very
dangerous at night. Operating a
shuttle service between Autren
and campus has been proposed
as a stopgap measure Howev
er. 24-hour, seven days a-week
service will be costly, and like
ly infrequent during off peak
hours and weekends That is the
very time when residents are
more likely to need to access
their vehicles
It is obvious that this cannot
be an absolute solution There
are alternatives that we must
explore. There are ways that we
«an solve these problems so that
we do not have to force any stu
dent to be unnecessarily placed
in an unsafe situation. Let's work
together toward an acceptable
solution.
Bill Hoimstrom
Undeclared
end co-eignere:
Seen Williams, Naomi Tan.
Brad TaHay, Carl Yah.
Brice La trance,
^•••dence Ha# Governance
Committee
Spring sarcasm
Did I mis* tb« point or did you
mitt the point by editing my loi
ter in response to Keith Cun
ningham's "Everybody get naked
— if* springtime" column (OOE.
May l)? I thought that by sign
ing my name to the letter it
would be printed in its original
form, but l gun* that was hope
ful thinking
Did I mi** the point of Keith’s
article? How so? Didn’t he make
the derision to put pregnant
women and notion dresses in his
little piece? Why?
Does be feel that since it’s
spring he now has license to
grope women and ask them per
sonai questions about their preg
nancies?
Now that it's spring it's Ok to
ogle women in ««tton dresses that
breathe “better than wu»e>"
Maybe we could combine those
two things and that would really
make spring joyous, wouldn't it?
What was the point? If those
things weren't points trying to
be made then why were they
mentioned? Keith should check
his writing and make his points
concise and dear Mavbe then,
we wouldn't question hi* intern
turns and we could just lake his
opinions for what they're worth
Robert L Wasson IN
Engbs/i
EDITOliS NOTE At it often
the cam with columnist*. Cun
nmgham’t pleas on "spring" *****
(Hire sarcasm As far at editing
goes, the Emerald reserve* the
right to edit any letter far length
and style.
Copy cats?
t reed the “Term limits might
rwnove weak-mititled politi
du»- editorial tom. May 8) I
also read an article enittled
Strum Thuroumi! Home on the
Hill - or Ov« nr in tha M<n 6
issue of Newsweek It is very
obvious that the Emerald artule
is baaed* on the Nmenemk arti
tie. to put it kindly
The two articles have the same
structure, use the same exam
pies, and in many cases the same
phrases, to voice the same opin
ion. This la grade school para
phrasing at its best.
I would not expect a deficit of
opinion at a university oawtpa
per. I now find myself wonder
ing how many of the Emerald
editorials I have wad were arig
inal thinking, and how many
would have been redundant if
I were a more thorough reader of
Tim* or U S Newt and World
Hr port
Please come up with your
own opinions'
Jon Kirshbaum
Eugene