The Nation - News from March 14, 1986

A retired Federal Aviation Administration official said the agency ignored flagrant violations at Continental Airlines during a safety investigation and gutted a report critical of the carrier. Harry Langdon, a veteran inspector with the agency’s San Francisco office who quit last year, testified at a congressional hearing that a 1984 FAA investigation disclosed serious shortcomings at Continental. Langdon said he had written up a lengthy report on Continental outlining his findings and recommendations, which subsequently were “severely watered down.”