Recessions Are Bad For Airlines, Deadly For Passengers?

So this is a pretty scary thought, albeit one that probably doesn't have legs. NPR's Planet Money graphed out commercial airline crashes in terms of recent recessions, and there isn't much correlation, a slight uptick for '91 and '01's downturns but even thats a stretch.

They go on to note that there are now reports circulating that Airbus had released a suggested equipment fix that Air France had not undertaken, the fix was a suggestion not an emergency must fix before flying type of thing. But could one of the underlying reasons that Air France had not fixed the equipment in question (which may have helped lead or even directly led to this crash) be the current economic climate and the need for Air France as a business to try and keep on budget?

Again probably not, but the whole notion is certainly attention getting.