ime of the event. One of the six crewmembers and 10 of the 139 passengers were killed. On September 2, 1998 a Swissair MD11 crashed near Halifax, Canada: The aircraft was on a nonstop flight from New York's JFK airport to Geneva. The aircraft crashed at night in the Atlantic Ocean close to shore about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. All 15 crewmembers and 214 passengers were killed. These are just the most recent accidents in the past decade. Almost of all of these tragedies can be avoided with harsher regulations, but they have to implemented first.Interest Groups and Elected Officials SectionsOne group that is highly involved in airline safety is the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB is a small, non-regulatory, independent agency with about 400 employees. At a cost of about 18 cents per year per citizen, the Board strives to restore and maintain the safety of the nation's transportation systems following aviation, rail, highway, marine, pipeline, and hazardous materials accidents. The Safety Board's mission is very focused: to prevent future transportation accidents from occurring. The Board's vision is for the public to continue to have confidence in our nation's transportation systems, even when accidents occur, knowing that an independent body will determine the cause(s) of accidents and recommend corrective actions to be taken. Their four goals are: 1. To prevent future accidents, save lives, and reduce injuries and property damage. 2. To prevent future accidents, save lives, and reduce injuries and property damage. 3. To provide aviators and mariners with fair, timely, independent appellate review of certificate actions taken by the FAA and the US Coast Guard. 4. To be the best managed agency in government in order to facilitate the accomplishment of our other goals.Another group that is interested in airline safety is the Air Line Pilots Association. ALPA provides all of the traditi...
