Less than 24 hours after leaving her government watchdog job, one of the Federal Aviation Administration's harshest critics said Tuesday the airline industry needs more than "lip service" to improve safety.
Mary Schiavo, who resigned Monday as the Transportation Department's inspector general, said she intends to remain outspoken."In the coming months and years, I intend to write and speak and return to the practice of law," she said in interviews on morning television news shows. But, she added, as for making airlines safer, "At this point, the ball is in other people's courts.
"There's a tremendous amount of work that has to be done. We've had a lot of lip service over the years. So there is a long way to go."
Schiavo has been a media mainstay in recent months and has offered blistering assessments of the FAA. Her public visibility increased dramatically in the aftermath of the ValuJet crash.
But she has not been free of criticism herself. Members of Congress have suggested that she should have passed her concerns on to them before airing them publicly.
Schiavo insisted Tuesday that she had done just that. "I've been reporting the problems for a long time. We've gone round and round about things for years," she said.
Her husband, Alexander Schia-vo, told The Washington Post that Schiavo, 40, was six months pregnant and leaving for personal reasons, including her desire to spend time with their 2-year-old daughter.