EADS CASA talks of safety but says nothing about crashes

EADS CASA lobbyists in Washington are trying to shift attention away from their company's dealings with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez - by switching the subject to "troop safety."

But in its June 6 news release playing up the safety record of the CN-235, the EADS CASA consortium made no mention of the many crashes documented on this blog. EADS North America CEO Ralph Crosby (pictured) was silent about the safety problems.

"The CN-235 has been operational since 1987," the release states, adding that "while others promise, the C-295 and CN-235 perform every day -- delivering the highest reliability and interoperability of any aircraft in their category."

The C-295 is a stretch version of the CN-235.

The news release also touted Turkey's use of the CN-235, but said nothing about the three separate crashes in 2001 that killed 39 Turkish crewmen and special forces troops, and three Spanish crewmen.

Spain and Turkey both pledged "major" investigations into the crashes, but EADS CASA lobbyists have not made the reports available to the US Congress, which is considering multibillion-dollar purchases of the planes.