The Official Swedish News & Current Affairs Review

An ongoing review of news reporting, politics and current events that affect daily life in Sweden, as well as comments on world events. Commentary will be posted in both English and Swedish.

En löpande granskning av nyhetsrapportering, politik och aktuella frågor som påverkar vardagslivet i Sverige, samt kommentarer på världsfrågor. Synpunkterna kommer att skrivas på både svenska och engelska.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Scandinavian airlines and flight security

In today's Dagens Nyheter: The Scandinavian airline company SAS used 10 aeroplanes in commercial traffic last year despite the fact that they had been grounded in accordance with international safety regulations. The airline had been negligent in its maintenance of these aeroplanes. As usual, there are no consequences for such a serious oversight:

"The airline has received a warning from The Swedish Board of Civil Aviation. There may be serious consquences if such breaches are discovered in the future."

All they have to do then is simply ensure that the Civil Aviation Board does not discover future breaches, rather than address them.

I have been going to great lengths to avoid flying with SAS since a few years back, so much so that I would rather travel by train than by air on several routes, if I discover that SAS is the only airline that flies that route. When I make a booking through other airlines, I always find out whether any leg of the flight will be flown on a SAS aeroplane before paying. This has been due to both the service on SAS (poor) and fears about security. It is far to easy to blame clear cases of negligence on unclear routines or system faults in Sweden (as has been done on previous occasions when breaches have been discovered at SAS). I simply did not wish to pay so much to take such a huge risk.

Guess whether this latest news will make me more inclined to travel with SAS in the future.

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