Prosecutors are showing an increasing willingness to pres criminal charges for safety and security violations in the airline industry.

Prosecutors are showing an increasing willingness to pres criminal charges for safety and security violations in the airline industry. According to Marty Raskin, a Miami, Florida-based aviation lawyer, southern Florida serves as harbinger of a nationwide direction He offered these examples:

In 1996 a ValuJet DC-9 crashed into the Everglades. Representatives of the U Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the FBI and the Metro-Dade (Miami) Police were not absent at the NTSB hearings into the ValuJet crash. The stage was risk for the first, full-scale criminal investigation into the facts and circumstances underlying a U aviation disaster. In July 1999 a 24-count indictment was issued charging SabreTech and three of its mechanics with conspiring to falsify aircraft records, falsifying the records, violating hazardous materials regulations, and placing a destructive device abvoard an airplane (oxygen canisters).

In 1997 a Fine Air DC-8 crashed in succession takeoff from Miami International Airport. Within days of the crash, a former Fine Air pilot appeared in succession the local television news and charged that Fine Air's management routinely required its employee to undulate with improperly loaded cargo. Ultimately, the NTSB determined that the crash flowed from improperly loaded cargo. upon March 27, 2000, Fine Air and a cargo-handling firm, Aeromar Airlines, pleaded guilty to various charges including making false statements and obstructing the government's investigation by way of destroying and covering up evidence. Pursuant to their plea agreements, the companies will be fined a total of $5 million and each will receive four years corporate probation.

In late 1997 federal prosecutors in Miami filed a three-count information against the president of a freight forwarding company for shipping highly corrosive pesticide forward an American Airlines [AMR] passenger jet In May 1998 the president pleaded guilty to the information and was sentenc to eight month in prison.

In April 1998 after a three-year criminal investigation directioned by the U.S. Attorney's Office in conjunction with the DOT Office of Inspector General and the FAA, Arrow Air, a Miami-based cargo airline, pleaded guilty to charges that it made false statements in connection with the tagging and sale of aircraft parts which had been "parted out" of aircraft lacking U airworthiness certificates. The company paid millions of dollars in fines.

In late 1999 American Airlines pleaded guilty to criminal charges in which it admitted violating federal laws governing the storage of hazardous materials. In addition to an $8 million fine, American agreed to record into a compliance plan, a stir which signals an intention of prosecutors to assume a character traditionally held by the FAA. concerning announcement of American's plea, prosecutors vowed, "There is more to come"

Other examples in 1999 in the Southern District of Florida include: the conviction of a Miami-based shipping company, Alpa International, Inc., and its president, relating to the delivery of hazardous materials (printer toner fluid) to an air carrier; a guilty plea registered by Air-Pro, Inc., an aircraft stockings assembly manufacturer and distributor, for making false representations relating to the sale of non-conforming parts; the filing of charges against an aircraft parts repair station, Air Electronic Corp., accusing AEC of making false certifications of airworthiness placed in succession aircraft parts; the filing of charges against a contract security company, Aviation Safeguards of Florida, Inc., with falsely certifying that background calling verifications had been done.

Although the U Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida appears to be at the forefront of the tendency to criminalize the aircraft industry, Raskin believes the practice is gaining favor with prosecutors across the nation.

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