An 80% rise in US airline fines in 1999 and a jury's conviction of SabreTech for its role in a ValuJet crash have drawn attention to a trend by prosecutors to bring more criminal charges over conduct involving air safety violations.
At a meeting of the American Bar Association's Air and Space Law Forum, lawyers voiced concerns about the growing aggressiveness of federal and state prosecutors in this field.
Robert Warren, general counsel for the Air Transport Association, says too much emphasis on criminal prosecutions could hurt air safety. Turning more violations into crimes, he warns, will chill the traditional co-operation between industry and government in investigating and fixing safety problems.
Douglas Fellman, a Washington lawyer who specialises in white collar crime, underscores this point by stressing that when a safety violator may face criminal charges, "it is critical that all communications with the government be carefully managed". Fellman adds that lawyers in such cases have an ethical duty to advise their clients of their privilege against self-incrimination.
Most criticism centres on a move by prosecutions beyond well-defined types of criminal conduct involving specific or deliberate intent, into grey areas where the standards are less clear.
Prosecutions for "reckless" conduct, some fear, could shade into making a crime out of negligence. By pressing ahead in such cases, attorneys warn that prosecutions will end all co-operation on air safety issues.
Source: Airline Business
