is a safe airline." >> i want to emphasize that i have flown valujet.alujet is a safe airline, as is our entire aviation system. >> i was very angry, because they knew that that airline was troubled. why? because i'd been called in to the secretary of transportation's office.úz the... the faa administrator knew we were down there,tqáaq]r looking. the... we had presented some of our findings already. >> o'brien: were they lying to the public? >> i think so. >> o'brien: why? >> because the faa protects airlines. >> o'brien: the faa's response to valujet exposed an inherent conflict in the agency's original mandate. >> the federal aviation act of 1958 gave the faa two primary missions-- one, safety; two, promote aviation, in no particular order. >> o'brien: after the valujet crash, congress, under public pressure, removed promotion from the faa mandate. but a closer look at the legislation tells a different story. >> there's a footnote in that d?:#:m the footnote says, "although we're changing the terminology from 'promote' to 'encourage,' we do not inten