ATW Daily News

Latest FAA revelation: More than 100 safety assessments at eight airlines missed

Wednesday May 7, 2008

US FAA said that more than five years have elapsed since it conducted assessments on 103 system designs at eight airlines, exceeding the timeframe during which the reviews were supposed to have taken place and the latest in a string of admissions by the agency regarding lapses in its airline oversight.

During a House of Representatives hearing last month on safety lapses at Southwest Airlines, Dept. of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel said FAA hadn't conducted a review of SWA's AD compliance program since 1999 even though such a review is required at least once every five years (ATWOnline, April 9). At a subsequent Senate hearing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell if there were any other instances when FAA had missed such a review.

In an April 22 letter to Murray made public yesterday, Sturgell admitted that the large number of reviews had been missed, but he emphasized that system design assessments--top-to-bottom reviews of airlines' various maintenance and safety systems to ensure regulatory compliance--are "recommended but not required."

He explained in the letter, provided to ATWOnline by Murray's office, that he could not provide "definitive data on why these inspections were deferred because the automated data collection system we used at the time did not require inspectors to document the reasons for delay." He said it was "likely. . .assessments were not completed because inspectors were assessing the performance of the systems and the data indicated the system performed properly and therefore was adequately designed." He added that "inadequate resources" were another "possible" reason reviews were missed.

Murray said that if the agency lacked resources to conduct the reviews, "FAA has not been honest about the true needs of the agency. . .we have hundreds more inspectors across the country than the FAA has ever requested [in budget requests to Congress]. . .The lesson from the Southwest debacle is that these system inspections matter. They are one of the best indicators of whether an airline has its act together when it comes to maintenance and safety compliance."

Scovel said 2004 "should have been a drop-dead date" for FAA to conduct its assessment of SWA's AD compliance program but the lapse was allowed to continue for another four years. "Why didn't higher authorities at FAA know that?" he asked.

by Aaron Karp

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