Eastern Fliers Don’t Seem Worried by Indictment

Few Eastern Airlines passengers interviewed Thursday said they knew the carrier had been indicted for falsifying maintenance records, and most said the news made little difference in their travel plans.

“I read it in the paper this morning, after I had boarded the plane,” said longtime Eastern passenger Charlene Ellis of Suitland, Md. “It made me slightly uncomfortable.”

But she added that she would continue to fly Eastern.

Marsha Nabors, of Advance Travel in the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, said that because of Eastern’s low fares, Ellis would hardly be the airline’s only passenger.

“Most of them don’t even pay attention to (news like the indictment) anyway,” she said. “As long as they can get these cheap fares with no penalties, they’ll ride.”

Miami-based Eastern and some high-level managers face a 60-count federal indictment--unprecedented in the airline industry--for allegedly failing to perform required maintenance and falsifying records to indicate the work was done. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday, followed a 10-month investigation and covers the period from July, 1985, through October, 1989.

Neglected were such critical items as radar, landing gear, automatic pilot instruments and fuel systems, said Andrew J. Maloney, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the indictment was returned. He said none of the alleged violations caused accidents or injuries.

The alleged neglect took place over more than four years at Kennedy and La Guardia airports in New York, Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta and Eastern headquarters in Miami.

Ana Carter of Atlanta hadn’t heard about the charges.

“I get nervous just getting on any plane, not just Eastern, and when you hear about maintenance, that doesn’t help,” she said in Miami. “I’ll just worry on my flight back.”

Some passengers weren’t as easygoing.

“I can promise you this--until the problem is fixed I will make no more reservations on Eastern Airlines,” Patricia Middleton of Washington said after arriving in Miami.