Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Pena Convenes Air Safety Meeting

Fulfilling a pledge made after the fourth major airline crash in recent months, Transportation Secretary Frederico Pena convened a two-day air safety meeting attended by 1,000 airline executives, safety chiefs, pilots and manufacturers. Pena said the American public will accept only a “zero” accident rate. Linda Hall Daschle, deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said that while the U.S. air system is the world’s most heavily traveled and safest, “our concern today is with the 239 people who didn’t make it home last year.” Jim Landry, president of the Air Transport Assn., said the “near hysteria of the last few months in some quarters was unwarranted.”