A vintage 1942 Douglas DC-3 aircraft burst into flames Sunday morning as it prepared to take off from Puerto Rico, bound for the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Fortunately no one was injured. The plane was carrying 6,000 pounds of mail for businesses and residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands who were advised to contact their local post office for more information. Our mail service here has its issues - now and then some items appear to travel a circuitous route to get here.
A recent audit conducted by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General confirmed what residents of St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix already knew; that numerous processing and transportation issues have resulted in damaged and delayed mail. I used to receive my TIME magazines three or four at a time and up to 4 weeks late. This was especially irrating during last year’s election. The problem seems to be in Puerto Rico according to the audit. “In FY 2005, the amount of pieces of mail delayed at the facility was 6 million. In FY 2006, the number jumped to 24 million and in FY 2007 it reached 28 million. Ouch!
Interestingly, there was nothing in the report about using World War II vintage aircraft to transport our mail. So now I am wondering what items on that plane might have been addressed to me. I hope they were all bills!
