Flyer beware? 60 Minutes' Allegiant Air investigation

a conversation with steve Kroft about his seven-month investigation into safety problems aboard Allegiant Air I thought that we started working on the story I thought we'd be able to do it in a couple of months I was somewhat surprised that it's taken so long we found more than 100 serious mechanical incidents including mid-air engine failures smoke and fumes in the cabin rapid descents flight control malfunctions these are all significant incidents is there a sense of urgency there to get this story on the air yeah there has been it I think from the time that we started it I think there was a sense of urgency that we wanted to get it finished we had a number of different problems I mean at the beginning we got no cooperation from either Allegiant or the FAA in terms of getting some of the documents that we wanted the interview that you did with the FAA John Duncan who was the executive director of flight standards it was really a stunning interview studying for the lack of information given up by the FAA have you ever heard this before I have not is that something you might look into it's something that we do look into on a routine basis yes is it something you will look into and something we will continue to look into I think people will be concerned about the FAA and the FAA is response to Allegiant I mean at this moment there are people up in the air on Allegiant flights right did that weigh on you while you're yeah I think we wanted to get we wanted it to go on the air as soon as it was finished as soon as we were done reporting the team was Michael cars as this producer and Vanessa fika is producer and that loves the editing the title of your story is flying under the radar have you been surprised that people don't know about this story flabbergasted you would think that you think what more people would know Vanessa fika says there's always been a lot of Twitter traffic on hit huh about Allegiant and people having bad experiences on the plane there are a lot of angry Flyers right now that are unhappy with service are unhappy with the delays but there's a big difference but that and having crisis on board you rolling okay then we're going to start we're just gonna go around the room and I'd like you to say your name we talked to a group of passengers from two different flights I've never flown Allegiant lucky you and we talked to a lot of people before we talked to them those are the people we talk to on camera and there was smoke in the cabin and fire coming out of that engine and I just remember thinking then I would never see my daughter again you thought this was it traumatizing right well actually I you know I've been in the plane atom crash been in a plane crash what kind of plane crash in Brazil coming back from covering President Reagan there there's a picture in my office of the crash landing we had to make the wing hit a tower yeah and so that must have been a real jolt it was a real jolt the real job the overhead compartments came down we flew around for 40 minutes and then made a emergency crash landing we covered it I got off that I had to do the story for the evening news steve Kroft was aboard the plane here's his report can you tell us what happened I was sitting in the jump seat during takeoff it does have an effect on you it was a long time before I was able to feel comfortable taking off you if you go through that it's a horrible experience to be in a plane for a half an hour and not know whether you're going to you know that the plane is gonna have to come down on the ground and whether you people are going to be killed or not whether you're gonna be killed it's a very traumatic experience was anyone hurt minor injuries so for people who love the deals that they get when they buy a ticket from Allegiant what do they need to know about what's really happening at this airline well they need to know that the Legion was three times more likely to have something go wrong on this plane than they would on another airline some might call that terrifying well yeah you know they have never had an accident they've never had a fatal accident do you think that the flying public has any idea about the safety culture of Allegiant no and we asked that to a number of people including loretta alkyl a was a former lawyer for the faa you know anybody in the industry that that flies Allegiant no no and I know that a lot of people talk about how they don't fly away Jim

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 314,336

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, allegiant, airlines, steve kroft, safety, air travel

Id: _PR6P3bmcrs

Length: 5min 17sec (317 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 15 2018