Airline Safety: Do recent disasters point to deeper industry problems?

A series of high-profile crashes has sparked new concerns about airline safety. The disasters include this year's apparently deliberate crash of a Germanwings jetliner in Europe by a troubled co-pilot, the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner over war-torn Ukraine last July and the disappearance of another Malaysia Airlines plane on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. Those and other incidents, coupled with increasingly crowded skies and airports stemming from growing worldwide passenger demand, are prompting airline regulators and operators to look for new ways to make aviation safer and more efficient. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is undertaking a $40 billion project aimed at converting U.S. air traffic control to a satellite-based communication and navigation system, but the project has run into delays and cost overruns and raised questions about the agency's ability to complete it. Meanwhile, controversy is brewing in Congress over calls to privatize air traffic control duties, now handled by the FAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]