on saturday the 5th of April, I was on an MD80 flying out of Dallas (American flight 1914). Just before our approach to land, we started smelling something burning. Our air conditioning went out and we descended quickly (not a dive). Our destination's airport was closed because of a storm and we had to divert to Savannah, Ga. The pilot informed us that there was a loss of cabin pressure and he had declared an emergency. I don't think that they are telling us everything, but I don't think it's a conspiracy to save money.

This is a case of trying to control cost to an unsustainable minimum. These Airworthiness Directives are sometimes vague in their instructions concerning the corrective action and its' urgency. The facts are an A.D. was issued many years back regarding this issue and after re-inspection by the FAA in which 15 of 19 planes did not meet the A.D. as written, it still does not explain the fact these aircraft have since undergone several inspections with the FAA inspectors at the facilities doing these "A", "B", and "C" checks (inspections). At each of these checks the A.D. would have been addressed.

Frankly, this just comes down to money. The money to fix the problem, the money to enforce the A.D., and the money or economic impact of grounding the planes for the airline and the U.S. economy.

If you really want to know the problem....it is the inadequate response by the federal government to the current trade imbalance and de-valuing dollar. It is impacting U.S. airlines ability to buy newer aircraft, maintain the ones they have and be profiitable with the rising costs of fuel associated with the dollar's decline. This issue is just the tip of the iceberg.

Airlines are historically non-profitable. We have two choices.

1. Admit that we need airlines and nationalize them so that they can operate without the need to make a profit.

2. Continue our past practice of having the federal government bail the airlines out occasionally.

Neither choice is necessary or appropriate, consider these two points.

1. People with the smarts to be airline pilots could make more money with more job security doing something else, but they spend years working for next to nothing flying commuter puddle jumpers -- because they love to fly. At the corporate level, the same thing...a lot of wannabees who think it would be pretty cool to run an airline, so we have more airlines than the market can support. The market would eventually clear these guys out, except...

2. Lenient bankruptcy laws allow financially non-viable airlines to continue in service, essentially requiring creditors to subsidize cheap airfares which in turn drag down other airlines (although I am glad that Frontier - which just went Chapter 11 - continues in service because my brother-in-law just flew out here for a visit on Frontier; I want him to have his return trip home...please!)