Improve tracking to put an end to missing flights

The suggestion that air travel is too safe to demand that airlines track all their flights from takeoff to landing is a bit like saying no one knows when a school fire might occur, so let’s not spend money to put sprinklers in schools.

As a beginning, international airlines charging fees to check bags should take $ 5 per bag from that and invest it in the deployment of a take-off- to-landing tracking system for commercial flights over oceans.

This would end the disappearance of flights such as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and ease the terrible stress the families of those lost have to endure. It would also save millions of dollars spent in the search for the lost plane.

Tom O’Mara

Stacy, Minn.

I am confused that some are calling the Malaysian airline disappearance solved, when as of Wednesday I have seen and heard no news that confirms discovery of wreckage belonging to the flight or any actual findings or information that links directly to this missing aircraft. We are being told that the black boxes haven’t been located, and that the search area is a guess based on information that isn’t conclusive.

I have an open mind on this, but there are a lot of dots that aren’t yet being connected to prove conclusively that this is the location of the plane.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne, Calif.

We take issue with the implication in USA TODAY’s article that pilots are inadequately screened. To the contrary, pilots are evaluated every time they fly (“Tough physicals, but ‘ shallow’ mental exams for pilots,” News, Friday).

All U. S. airline pilots undergo a medical evaluation at least once each year, most twice each year, by a medical doctor trained to evaluate pilots physically and emotionally. Airline pilots are also evaluated daily when they fly with fellow pilots and other crewmembers, and as they interface with company dispatch and maintenance specialists. They are also subject to random Federal Aviation Administration check rides and en route evaluations, and they frequently undergo recurrent training and evaluation.

Capt. Lee Moak, president Air Line Pilots Association International; Washington, D. C.

ROB GRIFFITH, AP A crewmember on board a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft searches for Flight 370.