"Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message
news

My favorite was then AA CEO Bob Crandall's articles in several magazines
(Fortune comes to mind) stating that "nearly 70% of our near-misses are
with private planes."

Ed WIschmeyer and I wrote letters to Fortune telling them that what
Crandall REALLY said is that "more than 30% of our near-misses are with
other airliners, flown by multi-pilot, professional crews under positive
control" and that, since AA had 10% of the airliner fleet, more than 3%
of their near-misses were probably with their own planes.

In addition, since GA makes up more than 90% of the total number of
planes, AA was having "more than 30% of their near-misses" with less
than 10% of the planes out there.

That part was never published, but Crandall shortly thereafter contacted
AOPA t work on a "partnership."

I hope that some lower-level AA exec got his wings clipped on that one!

Probably -- I'd bet Crandall didn't accept blame for it.

When was the last time (if ever) you heard a corporate exec take
responsibility for some screw-up? Anyone? You don't get to the top of the
heap in corporate America by falling on your sword; you get there by shoving
other people onto theirs, or impaling them on yours.