LETTERS

DANGEROUS SKIES

Following her staged resignation as Inspector General of the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo in her book [BUSINESS, March 31] managed to blame, variously, the Federal Aviation Administration, airline managements and the use of bogus aircraft parts in claiming that flying has become unacceptably risky. If Schiavo chose to interpret safety statistics accurately, she would note that 65% of the tiny number of air accidents are caused not by faulty equipment linked to cost cutting or due to the age of the aircraft but as a result of human error in the cockpit. Schiavo and other critics merely cause travelers to return to their automobiles, which are many times more dangerous than flying. GWYN DAVIES-SCOURFIELD Monarch Beach, California

All hail Mary Schiavo for spilling her guts about airport and airline safety. As an ex-facilities manager for a local airline in Phoenix, Arizona, I know intimately the behind-the-scenes activities. We need to X-ray all baggage, including checked bags; thoroughly inspect all cargo holds and passengers; and take the time to make sure the flight will be safe. We do not have the luxury of trust any longer. The FAA must demand all measures for security on the ground, in the terminal, on the baggage conveyor and in the air. I don't give a damn about departure and arrival delays. If the pilot doesn't want to go, or if there is a security problem, I don't want to go either. KIM CASEY Scottsdale, Arizona

When I became FAA administrator in 1993, the effort to modernize our national air-traffic-control system, a key piece in the safety equation, was a shambles. With the help of the Clinton Administration and Congress, the program is now on schedule and on budget. Millions of dollars' worth of new equipment is going into service every day, making the system safer and producing a 99.84% reliability rate. And the FAA is the first government agency with its own businesslike acquisition and personnel systems, which are working well.

It was clear in 1993 that there were too few air-safety inspectors. That has changed--dramatically. The number of inspectors was 25% higher by 1996 and keeps climbing. More hazardous-materials inspectors are being hired, and more air-traffic controllers are coming on board. The FAA is devoting more oversight to new carriers, and commuter airlines must meet the same safety standards as larger carriers.

Airport security is being upgraded as well. Sophisticated explosive-detection devices and more bomb-sniffing dogs are going into major ports, and extra security inspectors are being hired. Aviation is the safest way to travel, and the 48,000 men and women of the FAA with whom I worked are committed to safety. Aviation is a serious business requiring the dedication of competent, experienced and knowledgeable professionals. Fortunately, within the FAA and the aviation industry, those people are hard at work. DAVID HINSON FAA Administrator, 1993-96 Ketchum, Idaho

Thank you, Mary Schiavo, for coming forward with this story. Although there will be a backlash, the flying public appreciates your candor. DEBORAH VOHASEK Morton Grove, Illinois

I was an air-traffic controller from 1975 to 1981. In 1981, I experienced some of the things that led Schiavo to put her job on the line in an effort to promote reform at the FAA. I and other controllers, after frustrating years of asking the FAA to modernize the nation's air-traffic system, felt the situation had deteriorated to the point where we had to put our careers at risk to draw attention to the problems. The resulting strike of air-traffic controllers left the 11,400 participants without jobs and blacklisted for 12 years. For what? As Schiavo has shown, neither our actions nor those of others since have yielded major improvements. I admire Schiavo and hope something good will come of her actions, but given the FAA's past behavior, it probably won't. DOUGLAS WELKER Midland, Michigan

As a retired FAA public information officer who spent more than 25 years working with the news media, I can honestly say I never once heard the FAA called the Tombstone Agency, as Schiavo alleges. Still, it is a phrase made to order. Schiavo would probably have invented it if it didn't already exist. Judging from the excerpt of her book, she seems to be a master of hyperbole. JOHN G. LEYDEN Davidsonville, Maryland

Schiavo's sensationalist charges regarding the French-Italian-made ATR aircraft blatantly disregard the facts. Our company is responsible for the sales, marketing and customer support of the ATR. We can document that some 500 ATR airplanes have accumulated more than 5.5 million flights since beginning service in 1986, establishing one of the world's best safety records.

Schiavo wrongly asserts a link between the 1994 Roselawn, Indiana, accident and two others involving ATRs. In fact, investigators and courts determined that aircraft design and maintenance were not factors in these accidents. The Roselawn accident was caused not by a design flaw but by a chain of circumstances. These included a rare and previously unknown icing phenomenon only subsequently uncovered through rigorous in-flight icing tests, far beyond any nation's aircraft-safety standards. This new knowledge led the FAA to institute changes for all similar aircraft flying in icing conditions. Since then, ATR aircraft have flown through two harsh winters without incident. Schiavo says she is waiting for operators to test the "repairs"; the operators have been testing for two years, and the ATR record remains unblemished. JEAN-MICHEL LEONARD, President Aero International (Regional) Marketing Inc. Herndon, Virginia

For more than 40 years I have worked in the general-aviation and commercial-aviation industries in situations that required close contact with the FAA and constant implementation of federal regulations. I have never seen any relaxation of safety rules by the FAA. One could write a long rebuttal to Schiavo's so-called investigation, citing her arrogant attitude, her methods of obtaining data, her lack of knowledge of aircraft and, of course, her wrongly blaming the FAA for that one ValuJet tragedy. Flying in anything must scare the hell out of her. FRANK C. LOMBARDO Ocala, Florida

Overwhelming evidence shows that the ValuJet plane went down in the Florida Everglades because oxygen canisters caught fire in the cargo-bay area in flight. There is no direct cause-effect relationship between a lack of proper FAA supervision of ValuJet and the crash of this plane. The canisters were mislabeled not by ValuJet but by a repair facility. Had those canisters been put in any other carrier's cargo hold, the result would have been the same. DRAZEN GARDILCIC Chevy Chase, Maryland

The FAA should be ashamed of itself for its terrible performance record over the past 20 years. As a computer-systems professional, I view the FAA's failure to update our traffic-control system as a serious breach of trust. These systems are completely outmoded and for the most part ineffective. President Clinton, if you're listening, appoint Schiavo head of the FAA and give her free rein to clean up the mess. KARL KOENIG Minneapolis, Minnesota

Schiavo's book will do nothing to change airline safety. The FAA and Department of Transportation are merely helping deliver what Congress promised with the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978: cheap air fares. To provide true safety and security, with oversight and compliance by the airlines, would mean a staggering increase in direct government funding, user fees and ticket prices. The average business or leisure traveler will still book his trip primarily on the basis of price. People talk about safety until they have to pay for it. KARL METTER Alexandria, Virginia

TIPS ON SAFE FLYING

Some tips given by Schiavo in "Playing Safe" [BUSINESS, March 31] do not make any sense. How can anyone stay away from planes "with a past"? Most of the time passengers do not know what type of plane they will be flying, and the notion that some aircraft crash more often than others has not yet been solidly proved. Also, most passengers do not have an option to "avoid old jets." Even the leading airlines use 20-year-old planes, and you can't tell the age of a jet just by looking at it. YURI A. CHUMAKOV South Bend, Indiana

As an airline pilot for 30 years, I take exception to Schiavo's suggestion to "avoid old jets." Any airplane properly maintained will last virtually forever. DENNIS C. KEARNS Honolulu

VISIONS OF PARADISE

In citing reasons for the demise of talk about heaven [RELIGION, March 24], you should not overlook the fact that discussions in church about heaven became "politically incorrect" during the socially conscious '60s and '70s. Cliches like "Pie in the sky by and by" undoubtedly intimidated many preachers. And it is worth noting that holding out heaven as a reward for good deeds is counterproductive. When people realize it is God's grace alone that saves them, not good deeds, they are freed from a preoccupation with themselves and their own salvation and are able to serve others. (The Rev.) KEN FRERKING Campus Lutheran Church Columbia, Missouri

Heaven is being able to invest yourself in concern for the homeless rather than in stocks in some company you never see; it is seeking justice for those who are persecuted; it is using authority to help others rather than seeking to retain its power for its own sake; it is expressing love for one's neighbor over fear for one's own matters of interest. Heaven is so near to our yearning that we know it is true, and yet it is so far from where we are that we cannot see it. PAUL E. KNAPP Chattanooga, Tennessee

Close but no cigar. We should ask not Does heaven exist? but Does God exist? And Who or what is God? How about starting with the hypothesis that "God is love"; then let the debate begin. Until we understand God, heaven is without relevancy and is meaningless. JOHN J. STATHAS Atlanta

I would not turn to your magazine to find out if heaven exists any more than I would crack open the Bible for a good movie review. JOE FINAN Bloomfield, New Jersey

CLINTON'S FUND RAISING

On behalf of our client Johnny Chung, we wish to object to the article "What Did China Want?" [NATION, March 24] and, in particular, to the subtitle "The contributions made by Johnny Chung and others to the Clinton White House backfire on Beijing." This misleadingly implies that Mr. Chung was part of some conspiracy engineered by the Chinese government to make contributions to the White House for ulterior motives. This statement creates a false impression about a nonexistent connection between Mr. Chung and China. Indeed, the article presents no evidence to support this innuendo. The subtitle improperly implicates Mr. Chung in a matter wholly unrelated to him. In light of the above facts, we hope that you will take greater care in the future in the characterization of these events and that you will not succumb to the sensational and hysterical atmosphere that has at times been fostered by the media in covering these important issues. LISA NEWMAN TUCKER O'Neill, Lysaght & Sun Santa Monica, California

My biggest question, after failing to find any concrete proof or even evidence of China's illegal contributions to Clinton, is "Where's the beef?" LIN FENG Gaithersburg, Maryland

CIGARETTE MAKER TELLS ALL

What is amazing about the Liggett Group's admission of the addictive quality of nicotine [NATION, March 31] is not that it happened but that such a public statement was needed in the first place. A number of people believe nicotine is the most addictive of the commonly used drugs in the U.S. Yet this has not translated into a single real loss in court for the tobacco industry. MICHAEL JOSEPH WELTERS Vancouver, Canada

Your article pointed out that tobacco is an addictive drug that causes cancer and heart attacks and is most attractive to unthinking teenagers. In its 200-year history, the tobacco industry has carefully covered up these facts and as a result has not had to pay society for the damage it has caused. For the first time there is hope that the industry can be made to pay for its sins. I hope these changes will start a drop in tobacco use, to the great benefit of mankind. HAROLD E. RADFORD Aurora, Colorado

People must bombard congress with demands for a law requiring the tobacco industry to terminate its business within five years. PARKER T. CHAMBERLIN Orleans, Massachusetts

KEEPING AN EYE ON NATO

Instead of regarding the expansion of NATO as inevitably on track [WORLD, March 31], the U.S. ought to hold as sacred the West's primary task in foreign affairs: achieving a politically and economically stable Russia. Expanding the nato military alliance is an irresponsible abandonment of this task. To provoke Russia under an aging Boris Yeltsin is foolish. Later on, should the Russian Executive Office have to answer to a parliament of expansionist communists and ultranationalists, it could be lethal. MARC AJHAR Brake, Germany

Russia is no longer a significant threat to the U.S. or any part of Europe. The Clinton Administration only risks reviving that threat by pushing the expansion of NATO to Russia's doorstep. Do we really expect Russians just to "trust us" when we tell them they have no reason to worry? Does history allow them to do so? And would we trust them? EDWARD J. LANGILL III Braintree, Massachusetts

A capitalistic, democratic Russia can be pressed into accepting an eastward expansion of the West through its NATO alliance, but this may give rise to a neocommunist dictatorship, just as the failure of Weimar Germany gave rise to Hitler. Russia today is weak, but it is not entirely finished. MAREK LASKIEWICZ London

THE JIG IS UP

Your story on dancer-choreographer Michael Flatley, "Mr. Big of the New Jig" [DANCE, March 31], portrayed an arrogant, spoiled brat. Flatley, like some others in the entertainment industry, has fallen prey to the success brought by his admittedly very hard work and extraordinary talent. If, as is likely, he had anything to do with the final editing of the video version of his new show, then he is not as perfect as he thinks he is. I found this music-video production extremely annoying to watch, as the picture frames jerked around at a rapid pace, making the viewing experience about as far removed from seeing a live performance as one could imagine. ROBERT M. BLACKLOCK Salmon Arm, Canada

Michael Flatley? Liberace with dancing feet. Irish music and Irish dance were perfectly fine without a gentleman who is, if you will, Flatley superfluous. KEN FRIEDMAN Oslo

When my 16-year-old daughter saw the video of Flatley's Riverdance, she made this comment: "Wow, he's almost as good as Fred Astaire!" REBECCA SCHWITTERS Columbia, South Carolina

FOLLOWING IN SCHINDLER'S STEPS

In Robert Hughes' review of the exhibition of World War II emigre artworks [ART, March 24], I was delighted to see a mention of Varian Fry, who helped 1,500 European refugees escape from France before the Gestapo could get them. Though untrained in espionage or intrigue, Fry met the challenge of spiriting out of danger some of the most accomplished minds of Europe. Fry led a small band of associates in saving, among others, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Franz and Alma Mahler Werfel and Heinrich Mann, the brother of Thomas. Fry reminds us that heroism is simply responding selflessly to a crisis, in defense of a greater good. ALICE GREENWALD Cranbury, New Jersey

Among the refugees saved by Fry were my parents and I; we had been trapped in France in 1940-41. To express, belatedly, my indebtedness to Fry and to help spread his story, I have set up the Varian Fry Foundation Project. For information see www. almondseed.com/vfry on the Internet. WALTER E. MEYERHOF Menlo Park, California