Is there an app for unsafe airlines?

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Many questions nagged me as I read The Record's front-page story on a Fair Lawn woman who died in a plane crash on her 30th birthday in far-off Nepal, but reporter William Lamb provided only some of the answers in the last paragraphs.


From the large A-1 photograph placed below a photo of the smiling woman, it was a horrific crash in poor weather. But the story is far more detailed than it should have been about her life and too skimpy on information about the 29-year-old plane that went down or the airline's safety record. 

In fact, this was the perfect opportunity to advise globe-trotting North Jersey residents of how they can check the safety record of both the plane and the airline they are using, especially in remote parts of the world, such as the staging area for Mount Everest (photo), the woman's destination. 

Agni Air? Give me a break. If the victim had known 29 of the same turboprop aircraft had gone down, with a total of 122 fatalities, would she have stepped foot on that plane? I wouldn't, especially given the heavy rain and cloud cover that forced it to turn back. Why does anyone get on a plane in a rainstorm?

If she was carrying the Web address of the U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network, which is cited in the story, she might still be alive today. And I guess the 13 others who died with her are so much chopped liver; their names and hometowns aren't given.

Especially in view of Governor Christie's severe education cuts, the state really blew it by finishing out of the money for a $400 million federal grant (A-1). What good will the finger pointing do? WBGO-FM news reported New Jersey lost by only 3 points, and it lost 5 points for not following instructions on the 1,000-page application.

And is the so-called plagiarism of a speech to Teaneck grads by the interim superintendent such a big deal that it lands on Page 1?  The original speech sounds like boilerplate, echoing what is said to just about every graduating class.


Can Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale say with any certainty that all the reporters and columnists at The Record of Woodland Park have never lifted a paragraph or two or three from somewhere else? I recall a Mike Kelly piece on a campaign rally for a presidential candidate that seemed to echo what had appeared in The New York Times. Vivian Waixel, The Record's editor at the time, didn't agree with me, however.

For the second day in a row, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin runs an editorial criticizing NJ Transit train operations (A-12). Doblin has written columns about fare hikes from his personal perspective -- he commutes by rail -- but I'd like to hear more from the former Hackensack daily about the problems of working -class bus riders for a change, especially those trapped on the No. 780 Englewood-Passaic bus and other rickety lines.

Don't expect Road Warrior John Cichowski to leave the office and ride one of those buses, given all the hours he spends fielding and responding to hundreds of arcane questions from drivers, including some who regard pedestrians in crosswalks as so many moving targets (today on the Local front). 

Two days after the meeting, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado reports school board re-votes on appointing personnel (L-3), and possible employment problems for the superintendent. There is no Englewood or Teaneck municipal news in the paper today, thanks to head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes and her minions on the clueless assignment desk.