i mean, really a lot of agony that i haven t been back since. and i haven t been as close as to where we were at today. in the 1980s and 90s, korean air has more than a dozen accidents with a death toll of 750. the airline is seen as so problematic, the u.s. department of defense prohibits employees from flying on its planes, and canada threatens to ban korea air from flying over its air space altogether. but then a major turnaround. korean air hires david greenberg, a retired pilot turned vp from delta airlines. he institutes new policies and procedures and completely revamps communication in the cockpit. you have national culture, you had corporate culture and you had pilot culture. you can t change national culture, but what the corporate culture does to mold and shape the pilot culture is critical. the incredible changes that happened in a short period of
you have national culture, you had corporate culture and you had pilot culture. you can t change national culture, but what the corporate culture does to mold and shape the pilot culture is critical. the incredible changes that happened in a short period of time are impressive. the industry has come a long way since the days of authoritative captains and crews reluctant to assert themselves. since crew resource management, crm, has been instituted, the number of aviation accidents has decreased significantly. crm is one of the reasons that aviation is as safe as it is today. it s one of the quantum leaps that aviation safety was able to make was making pilots better team members. it has probably been one of those things that you can t quantitatively measure, but the effect that it s had on the success and safety of aviation today has been enormous.
the payroll tax cut. it s set to expire at the end of this year. president obama called john boehner today and the white house has even put a counterdown clock on the home page of its website. it says if the house does not act, taxes on the middle class will increase starting the first of the year. let s go to the white house. our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin, is standing by with the latest on this dramatic political showdown. what is the latest? the latest is that the white house believes there is only one way for the nation to avoid an increase in the payroll tax cut and that is for speaker john boehner to bring that senate pass two month extension to a vote. just this morning, speaker boehner said that s not going to happen. we re here, we re ready to work. we re looking for our counterparts to sit down with us so we can do what the president and leaders want and that s to extend the payroll tax cut for one year. now, midday today, the president ho