DEREGULATION AND AIR TRAVEL SAFETY

THE RECENT RASH of blown jet engines, near misses, and airliner crashes has raised fears that airline deregulation has caused a deterioration in airline safety. Policy makers and the public are being told that the nation's airline system is not working now, and that it did work under economic regulation. Critics say the airlines need to be reregulated to protect the public from airline moguls who are guided only by the profit motive. Proponents of continued reliance on market forces respond to these charges with definitive statements that safety has not been impaired by deregulation, citing as evidence the steady decline in the airline death rate (deaths per billion passenger-miles). The facts of airline safety are not as readily apparent as either side might presume. It is a fact that the airline death rate has fallen since 1978, the year of deregulation. This should be heartening news to air travelers who may have thought