{
  "id": "1999-december-hidden-dangers-airlines-and-hazmat",
  "slug": "1999-december-hidden-dangers-airlines-and-hazmat",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1999-december-hidden-dangers-airlines-and-hazmat.html",
  "year": 1999,
  "month": "December",
  "monthNum": 12,
  "headline": "Hidden Dangers Airlines and HazMat",
  "kicker": "HIDDEN DANGERS",
  "author_name": "Elizabeth Marchak",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Plain Dealer",
  "summary": "The article investigates ongoing issues with hazardous materials on airlines following the 1996 Valujet crash and evaluates the effectiveness of FAA's enforcement.",
  "keywords": [
    "airlines",
    "hazardous materials",
    "FAA"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Public Safety",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "In 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration promised to change the way it oversaw aviation, including the problem that was believed to have caused the May 11, 1996 Valujet crash - hazardous materials. In March 1997, the FAA started issuing press releases when the agency proposed fines of $50,000 or more for HazMat violations. Meanwhile, there were tips from sources that the FAA's press releases didn't tell the whole story. One person offered as proof an internal document which laid out some FAA officials' interpretation about enforcing HazMat training laws. Fifteen months after the crash, the document said, the FAA's Southern Region was still at odds with the rest of the agency's enforcement officials about whether airlines that didn't carry hazardous materials even needed to train their workers to recognize the stuff. With the disparity between the FAA's press releases and my newly-acquired internal document, I turned to the data. I was spurred on by Congressional testimony that said passenger airlines accounted for 60 percent of the cargo flown on airplanes. Ten months later, on Jan. 17-18, 1999, we published a two-part series called 'Safety on Hold: The hidden dangers in airline cargo'. We made extensive use of two government databases. I examined 20 years' worth of FAA enforcement data, studying trends by violator, frequency, charge, year, region, FAA office, and resolution. My findings filled one of those fat, three-ring binders. The data showed the FAA's enforcement peaked in the six months following the much-publicized crash, assessing $3.2 million in fines for the whole year. In 1997 and for the first half of 1998, the number of violations and the fines decreased. Confronting the agency with its own data - analyzed the way they analyze it - put them in a box. Then I spent several more weeks studying HazMat reports to DOT's Research and Special Programs Administration. RSPA's data is in tables which cannot all be linked because the comments field produces a Cartesian product. But some data can be linked on a far smaller scale if the record numbers from the main table are linked to the table with the comment field. I did this to track down airlines' reports, which gave me anecdotes and information about all the efforts the airlines make to contain leaks and spills. Meanwhile, the number of HazMat reports of spills and leaks had increased 623 percent for the decade through June 1998, far outstripping the growth in cargo and way ahead of other transportation modes for the same 10-year period. But the data my editors found most interesting was how enforcement varied among the nine FAA regions.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1996-june-crash-course-on-plane-crashes",
      "score": 0.267
    },
    {
      "slug": "2004-september-october-hazmat-updated",
      "score": 0.267
    },
    {
      "slug": "1998-july-database-library-highlights-hazardous-materials",
      "score": 0.254
    },
    {
      "slug": "1995-april-finding-the-toothless-tiger",
      "score": 0.244
    },
    {
      "slug": "2002-september-october-faa-withholds-data",
      "score": 0.184
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1999-december-hidden-dangers-airlines-and-hazmat.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1999-december-hidden-dangers-airlines-and-hazmat.json"
}