THE IRRITATED AMERICAN The MD83 that went down via Air Algerie. (WIKI) "Not so good," would likely be the answer from the aviation business if asked how things are going lately in the wake of the oil price plunge . . . might it also have a bit to do with the ongoing series of air crashes that have unfolded before the horrified eyeballs of the world? Could be. I've written about this elsewhere, but never here: About the only entity set to glean some excitement and benefit from the current spate of terrible aviation disasters is National Geographic, who have, during their break between seasons, cultivated some incredible fodder for their Air Crash Investigation prime time series. From the two notorious Boeing 777's that went down for Malaysia Airlines-- MH370, to the awful MH17 shoot-down in Ukraine-- to the Air Algerie crash that went down in Mali taking 116 little reported lives with it, to of course the recent Air Asia crash of flight 8501 with 162 fatalities, it's been quite a bad year for fatalities. The bleakness of the picture for US carriers is illustrated by the reports yesterday that legendary carrier United Airlines is set to cut a whopping 2000 jobs in airport baggage handling via outsourcing to private contractors to save revenue. Guess those plunging oil prices don't add up for all corporate entities to the dance party it is for most individual consumers and families. If the aviation business is going to get itself back on the track it requires to maintain the status quo of better days, the training regimes of pilots must be updated to correspond to the present disposition they maintain on modern era jets, wherein they are guest handlers of airlines which they fly for just a few moments, while mostly keeping out of the way of sophisticated autopilot systems. Thus they find themselves completely unprepared for emergencies at cruise altitude, when problems occur. Preston Clive 1/14/2015