The editorial staff made an error when they decided to run this article. Even leaving aside the ethical and moral aspects of using a tragedy for a jumping off point to a rant about bad travel experiences, the writing is awful. The author starts with the thesis that TAM is the worst airline in the world, then enumerates as evidence a series of problems over which which TAM has no control. She even admits as much!

This indictment of the Brazilian aerospace system might be justified, if only our intrepid author had returned to any specific-to-TAM issues and their relation to the bigger picture. But no, we just get what amounts to a travel blog post preceded by a sensational headline. That's just plain bad writing, and bad journalism. shame on both Ms. Spiers and the Slate editorial staff.