CHAPTER FOUR

CORRUPT AIR SAFETY
CHECKS AND BALANCES

Starting in 1964 and continuing for years, whenever an airline crash was associated with FAA misconduct, I petitioned members of Congress to receive my evidence and testimony showing the connections between the crash and the documented FAA, NTSB, and UAL misconduct. In the mid-1960s several members of Congress admitted the gravity of my charges and offered to investigate. But they quickly backed off, giving sham excuses, such as this matter was not in their area of responsibilities, even though they admitted that it was, prior to contacting Justice Department officials.

Hundreds of members of Congress were petitioned to receive my evidence. The few who expressed concern included Senators Robert Kennedy, William Proxmire, Mike Monroney; Representative Henry Gonzalez, and others. Senator Proxmire wrote that he hoped my charges would be given the "attention they seem to deserve." But he did nothing to get the attention other than wish me luck. His letter continued:

It was good of you to go into such great detail regarding your accusation of criminal malfeasance in the Federal Aviation Administration. Frankly, I think you would be well advised to submit whatever evidence you have regarding this matter to the Aviation Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. This Subcommittee is chaired by Senator Monroney and has a great deal more experience in the field of aviation law than I have. I simply don't have the staff or the expertise to give this matter the attention it seems to deserve.

Over the next three decades I discovered that regardless of the gravity of the criminal acts I brought to their attention, regardless of their lawful requirement to receive evidence of criminal activities, not a single member of Congress would receive my evidence. Hundreds were contacted by petitions and letters, as I uncovered criminal activities as serious or far more so than what I had discovered in the aviation field. This refusal to perform a duty became even worse as my activist activities discovered corruption far beyond my realm of understanding at this stage.

PATTERN OF NTSB OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
Officials in control of the NTSB were heavily involved in the aviation related corruption. I first presented evidence of the criminality associated with a series of airline crashes in 1963. Before those reports, my predecessor on the United DC-8 program had done the same. Many crashes followed my warnings to the NTSB. Under federal statutory and case law, their coverup and refusal to perform their duty made them as guilty as the principals at United Airlines and the FAA. This deep involvement as co-conspirators prevents the NTSB from ever conducting an in-depth investigation into the underlying air safety problems.

Donald Madole, a former FAA attorney during the investigation of the New York City and Denver crashes [and subsequently chief of the air safety section of the Civil Aeronautic Board](16) knew the relationship between safety problems and the resulting crashes. He was the FAA attorney in charge of the NTSB hearing into the United Airlines DC-8 crash at Denver in the fall of 1961. Frank Harrell had contacted him in Washington prior to that crash, as well as prior to the United DC-8 crash into New York City, describing the rampant corruption within the FAA and at United Airlines. By now, Madole knew as well as anyone the price the public and the crews paid for the deeply entrenched pattern of corruption and coverups.

Several times I put the NTSB on notice in such a way that they could not sidestep the issues. I sent to the head of the NTSB a several-hundred-page document specifically... identifying the pattern of air safety and criminal actsassociated with a series of airline crashes in which the NTSB played a role through their coverups. I demanded a meaningful reply from the NTSB, and they refused to provide one.

I sought assistance by writing to Colorado Representative McVicker, who represented my home district in Colorado at that time. The letter explained the NTSB involvement in the scandal, the report that I had sent to the NTSB, and my inability to obtain a response. McVicker wrote to the NTSB and received a reply stating: "Our Bureau of Investigation [has] been unable to substantiate his allegations relating to safety hazards." The NTSB advised that the Congressman "will be ... advised ... if subsequent review produces any information relevant to a hazard in aviation safety."

The NTSB had access to thousands of pages of evidence that I introduced into the Denver grievance hearing, and had the proof supporting my charges. These were not difference-of-opinion or poorjudgment charges that I brought to their attention. They were hard-core air safety and criminal violations. Certainty of recurring crashes from the uncorrected corruption didn't appear sufficient cause for either McVicker or the NTSB to address my charges. Seeking to force them into action, I wrote to McVicker nine months

16) Later renamed National Transportation Safety Board.

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