Sky Strain

Anyone planning to travel by air this summer could only be discouraged last week by the barrage of criticism hurled at the U.S. agency that is supposed to ensure safety in the skies. In one report after another, the Federal Aviation Administration was assailed for failing to do its job. In a characteristic remark, the National Transportation Safety Board, a separate U.S. agency, described the FAA's management as "inadequate, ineffective and unresponsive." The week's attacks:

-- The NTSB issued a report finding that the FAA bore partial responsibility for last year's accident in which the top of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tore apart in midair, killing a flight attendant. The FAA allegedly neglected to monitor carefully Aloha's maintenance procedures and failed to enforce closer inspections in the airline industry even after stress cracks had been found in older planes. )

-- In a separate study, the NTSB chronicled serious flaws in the air-traffic- control system for Southern California's airports. Though the FAA knew of cramped working conditions in control towers and a high level of errors, the agency allegedly took no action to improve the situation.

-- A House subcommittee released a General Accounting Office survey that found air-traffic controllers were overworked and unhappy in their jobs. "Morale is horrible, traffic intolerable, management insensitive," an unidentified controller told the GAO.

In the wake of all the criticism, Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner sought last week to put the warnings in perspective. Said he: "The system is bulging at the seams, but it's still the safest in the world." Perhaps so, but its watchdog has been caught sleeping.