To err is human. But just how can major airlines manage to flub safety inspections on hundreds of aircraft?

American Airlines is the latest to pull off such a blunder. It somehow forgot or otherwise fouled up inspections due on more than 300 aircraft. The mix-up was discovered in an FAA audit, and so 200 planes sat on the ground Wednesday when they should have been flying.

It’s a goof of Brobdingnagian proportions.

Last year, Southwest missed safety inspections on dozens of Boeing 737s, then kept flying them even after discovering the error.

That’s considerably more serious than forgetting to take out the garbage, a sin which I often commit.

My saintly wife always forgives me. I wonder if American’s customers will be as understanding over their cancelled flights.

Forgiveness would have been considerably harder if the oversight had led to an accident. What’s missing here is an explanation of just how this came about. The airlines and the FAA owe the public an accounting. Here’s our Friday, March 28, editorial on the issue.