Times Reporter Wins Award for Series on FAA
A series of investigative stories by Times Orange County reporter Jeff Brazil documenting how the Federal Aviation Administration had mishandled numerous safety issues, resulting in preventable deaths, has been awarded the 1994 Worth Bingham Prize.
The prize, which carries a cash award of $10,000, is given annually for newspaper or magazine reporting that exposes cases in which the nation’s public interest is being ill-served.
Sharing the prize with Brazil were New York Times reporters Douglas Frantz and Ralph Blumenthal, who detailed a history of safety problems at USAir.
Responding to a fatal Santa Ana plane crash in December, 1993, involving a corporate jet and a Boeing 757, Brazil launched a full-scale investigation into the FAA’s handling of 757 safety issues.
In addition, a three-part series in December, 1994, entitled “Dangerous Delays,” showed that the FAA had failed to act on a wide range of safety issues until the problems resulted in loss of life.
Brazil’s stories led to changes in federal transportation safety regulations involving 757s, spurred a congressional hearing on air safety, and prompted an internal FAA review that helped lead to a restructuring of the agency.
Times Orange County correspondent Shelby Grad and Times Orange County researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to the series.
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