The French measures, to be financed by the industry, could increase the cost of flying without enhancing safety, Yates said, adding his prediction that many consumers will put cheap fares before safety anyway.
"The traveling public is very price conscious," he said. "Many of us say, `It's the cheapest of the lot -- I'll go with it and take my chances.'"
Inspections cannot always be relied upon to pick up potential problems. West Caribbean's ill-fated McDonnell Douglas MD-82 had been checked twice by French authorities in Martinique in recent months, according to Dominique Perben, France's transport minister, who said "no particular observations" were recorded.
Venezuelan investigators have said the pilots had radioed to report the failure of both engines shortly before the plane came down.
Searchable databases of accidents, from full-blown crashes to minor runway scrapes, are available at a handful of respected industry Web sites like the Aviation Safety Network.
In addition, thousands of safety incidents -- for example when two planes fly or taxi closer together than national or international rules allow, without actually colliding -- are reported each month to national aviation authorities. Even specialists find it hard to analyze all of their safety implications, said David Learmount, Flight International magazine's safety editor.
If the Helios passengers had checked out the carrier on available accident databases before boarding the plane, "all they would have found out is that [the airline] had never had an accident before," Learmount said.
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