The New York Times, "Report Faults FAA Action On Handling Risky Cargoes"

          The Federal Aviation Administration's campaign to keep hazardous materials off airplanes, begun after an improper shipment caused a crash in the Florida Everglades that killed 110 people eight years ago, has generated thousands of enforcement cases and tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties.
          But the punishment is sometimes too little, too late, the inspector general of the Transportation Department said Friday in a report that called for major improvements.
          Among other problems, the aviation agency takes more than a year to complete enforcement actions in the average case, and drops a large number of cases because it cannot complete its work within two years, a deadline the agency imposed on itself, according to the report.
          In the FAA's southern region, the agency dropped a quarter of the cases for that reason, according to the auditors. The average time to complete an enforcement case in the southern region was more than two years, they said.