The pilot of an airliner is responsible for the safety of passengers.

A passenger airplane took off for the USA.

To fly big passenger airliners calls for long training and experience.

Boeing, which builds more than half the world's commercial airliners, is understandably keen to draw attention to what can go wrong besides planes.

In the case of commercial airplanes, private companies compete to sell their product.

Crashes in the early days of commercial jets tended to be caused by technical faults, such as metal fatigue in the airframe or engines.

A recent analysis by Boeing forecasts that unless safety is improved, jet airliners could be falling out of the sky at the rate of once a week by the year 2010.

According to the ABC news, another jet-liner was hi-jacked in the Middle East.

The Lockheed scandal is a worldwide corruption scandal involving the major American plane manufacturer Lockheed. It came to light in February 1976 and revolved mainly around the acceptance of passenger plane contracts.