Iowa expert will not fly Allegiant Air after ’60 Minutes’ story
An Iowa State aerospace engineer says he wouldn’t board Allegiant Air jets after this week’s “60 Minutes” story questioning the airline’s safety record, the Des Moines Register reports. “I would not fly them,” said Leonard Bond, director of Iowa State University’s Center for Nondestructive Evaluation. “There does appear to be a problem. That’s what the numbers seem to say.” Allegiant Air, which came to the Des Moines International Airport in 2003, is under fire after “60 Minutes” aired a story counting more than 100 serious mechanical incidents between January 2016 and October 2017. Allegiant Air has pushed back to defend its safety record, but the company’s stock price fell more than 3 percent by 4:30 p.m. Monday. It was down about 1 percent in trading this morning.