Showing posts with label Safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Safety. Show all posts
Friday, April 11, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Second Congressional Hearing on FAA Set for Senate on Thursday
Following last week's House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in which two whistle blowers came forward to tell of FAA-Southwest Airlines coziness impeding airline safety compliance oversight, the Senate is convening its own hearing this week:
Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Subcommittee Aviation Safety Oversight Hearing: Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
Thursday, April 10, 2008
10:00 AM
SR - 253
Although the U.S. aviation industry is experiencing its safest period in history there have been a series of high-profile events that have raised concerns regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) oversight of safety in the National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA recently proposed fining Southwest Airlines $10.2 million for operating over 40 aircraft that had not received all required safety inspections. Subsequent FAA audits of maintenance records have resulted in a number of other air carriers grounding planes while they ensure their aircraft comply with safety regulations.
In addition, there is continuing Congressional interest in other key safety issues, including runway incursions, operational errors and the FAA’s oversight of maintenance operations. This hearing will examine these safety issues, and the FAA’s implementation of the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS), the new systematic approach the agency has implemented to address safety oversight.
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
A few details from the Wall Street Journal's top notch Andy Pasztor:
Southwest's violations have sparked investigations by committees in both the House and the Senate, with preliminary indications that a number of other U.S. airlines in recent years have experienced similar safety lapses. Testifying Thursday before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, witnesses, including the Department of Transportation's inspector general and the union that represents FAA safety inspectors, gave examples of what they contend were violations of maintenance, training or operational rules at a number of carriers.
A Senate aviation safety and security subcommittee is planning to delve into some of the same issues in a coming hearing. Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the panel's chairman, has said that the Southwest revelations "have thrown a cloud over" the agency, prompting lawmakers to pursue "a comprehensive review of the FAA's safety operations" and likely resulting in "additional steps to make sure our aviation system remains the safest in the world."
Witnesses:
Panel 1
Mr. Hank Krakowski, Chief Operating Officer, Air Traffic Organization, Federal Aviation Administration
The Honorable Calvin L. Scovel III, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation
Mr. Basil Barimo, Vice President of Operations and Safety, Air Transport Association
The Honorable Steven R. Chealander, Member, National Transportaion Safety Board
Nicholas Sabatini, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, Federal Aviation Administration
Mr. Tom Brantley, President, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists
Should make for another interesting day on Capitol Hill.
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Diane Rehm Show Explores FAA and Airline Safety Inspections
This morning NPR's ever-informative Diane Rehm Show devoted a full hour to the issue of recent problems besetting the FAA. Very informative program, and well worth taking the time for a listen. [Real Audio :: Windows Media]
Details:
The Federal Aviation Administration comes under scrutiny as former inspectors raise concerns about how the agency conducts safety inspections of the airlines. A look at whether the FAA is too close to the industry it regulates…
Guests
Del Quentin Wilber, national aviation reporter, "The Washington Post"
Michael Boyd, aviation consultant
Rep. John Mica (R-FL), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
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Friday, April 4, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Gears Up for Important Thursday Hearing
Tomorrow the full House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be called to order by Chairman Jim Oberstar. In the wake of today's United Airlines 777 fleet grounding (after the airline found that checks to its fire-suppression system were not completed as required), the Critical Lapses in FAA Safety Oversight of Airlines: Abuses of Regulatory "Partnership Programs" hearing couldn't come at a better time.
The hearing follows lapses in FAA oversight of maintenance at Southwest Airlines, which resulted in the carrier's grounding of aircraft on March 11, 2008:
Southwest Airlines says it grounded 41 planes last night as the airline deals with fallout from using aircraft that had not gone through a required inspection for possible structural damage. Spokeswoman Christi Day says the move resulted in some flights being canceled Wednesday, but she doesn't have a precise figure.
The move comes as Southwest faces a $10.2 million civil penalty for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes after the airline admitted that it had missed required inspections of the planes for structural cracks. Southwest also put three employees on leave after being notified of the penalty by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Committee's live webcast stream begins Thursday morning at 10 a.m. EST.
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Dave Michaels and Terry Maxon over at the Dallas Morning News give some background on the time leading up to the grounding:
The Dallas-based airline is reeling from regulatory and congressional investigations of its decision last year to continue flying planes – some with fuselage cracks – that should have been grounded pending inspections. ...
Wednesday's action addresses a different directive from the inspections that the airline missed last year. Southwest said it grounded the jets after confronting some confusion Tuesday night about the way the inspections should be done. The airline visually inspected areas above and below the aircraft's windows, but noticed that the regulation also required a more sensitive test using electrical "eddy" currents that detect hidden defects.
"The inspections were done," Ms. Harbin said. "It was the method of the inspection – visual versus eddy current – that we had the question about." ...
In March 2007, Southwest disclosed the failures that prompted the fine. That reporting should have prompted the airline to ground the jets until they could be checked. But with the tacit approval of an FAA supervisor in Irving, Southwest kept flying the aircraft as it did the inspections over about eight days.
CNN fleshes out the situation:
The FAA has said Southwest operated 46 Boeing 737s on nearly 60,000 flights between June 2006 and March 2007 while failing to comply with an FAA directive requiring repeated inspections of fuselage areas to detect fatigue cracking.
The FAA also alleges that after Southwest discovered it had failed to comply, it continued to operate the same planes on an additional 1,451 flights in March 2007. The airline later found that six of the 46 planes had fatigue cracks, the FAA said.
Documents provided to CNN show that another 70 Southwest jets were allowed to fly past the deadline for the mandatory rudder inspections. Those documents also say that 47 planes -- one more than reported by the FAA -- flew without their mandatory fuselage inspections. In some cases, according to the documents the FAA provided to congressional investigators, the planes flew for 30 months past government inspection deadlines and should have grounded them until the inspections could be completed.
The documents were prepared by two FAA safety inspectors who have requested whistle-blower status from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Both inspectors have been subpoenaed to testify before the committee.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, who heads the committee and who has called the situation "one of the worst safety violations" he has ever seen, is scheduled to hold a hearing April 3 to ask why the airline may have allegedly put its passengers in danger. The whistle-blowers say FAA managers knew about the lapse in safety at Southwest, but decided to allow the airline to conduct the safety checks on a slower schedule because taking "aircraft out of service would have disrupted Southwest Airlines' flight schedule."
Hearing details:
The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will meet on Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building to review the results of an oversight investigation into questions of conduct violating the Federal Aviation Regulations in the inspection and maintenance program.
Witnesses slated (written testimonies will post after hearing):
Panel 1
Mr. Charalambe "Bobby" Boutris, Aviation Safety Inspector and Boeing 737-700 Partial Program Manager for Aircraft, Southwest Airlines Certificate Management Office
Mr. Douglas E. Peters, Aviation Safety Inspector and Boeing 757 Partial Program Manager, American Airlines Certification Unit, AMR CMO
Mr. Michael C. Mills, Assistant Manager, Dallas Fort Worth Flight Standards District Office
Mr. Paul E. Cotti, Supervisor, American Eagle Airworthiness Unit, AMR CMO
Mr. Robert A. Naccache, Ret. Assistant Manager, SWA CMO
Mr. Terry D. Lambert, Manager, Safety and Analysis Group, Flight Standards Division
FAA Southwest Region
Panel 2
The Honorable Calvin L. Scovel III, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation
The Honorable Scott J. Bloch, Special Counsel, U.S. Office of the Special Counsel
Mr. Nicholas A. Sabatini, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, Federal Aviation Administration
Mr. James J. Ballough, Director, Flight Standards Service, Federal Aviation Administration
Mr. Thomas Stuckey, Manager, Flight Standards Division, FAA Southwest Region
Panel 3
Mr. Herb Kelleher, Executive Chairman, Southwest Airlines Co.
Mr. Gary Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, Southwest Airlines Co.
Mr. Vincent Larry Collamore, Aviation Safety Inspector, SWA CMO
Mr. John Bassler, Principal Avionics Inspector, Dallas Fort Worth, FSDO
Panel 4
Mr. Tom Brantley, President, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists
Mr. Richard A. Andrews, Aviation Safety Inspector, American Eagle Operation Unit Professional Aviation Safety Specialists
Mr. Joseph P. Thrash, Ret. Aviaton Safety Inspector, Continental Airlines CMO
Mr. Bill McNease, Ret. Aviation Safety Inspector, FedEx CMO
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Monday, March 31, 2008
United Mechanics, Now Teamsters, Challenge Outsourcing of Jobs
From the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:
United Airlines mechanics overwhelmingly chose the Teamsters Union as their collective bargaining representative by a vote of 4,113-2,631, the National Mediation Board announced Monday. The 9,300 active and furloughed mechanics who comprise the bargaining unit will become Teamsters as soon as the NMB vote is certified. The board is expected to certify the vote by close of business Tuesday.
The Teamsters victory culminates a two-year effort by United mechanics and related personnel to gain strong representation. A key issue was the failure of their former bargaining representative, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, to hold United to its contractual obligation to limit outsourcing.
“We’re thrilled that United mechanics voted to join our union by such a large margin,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “United mechanics will now have the Teamsters strength behind them in their fight against outsourcing to foreign repair stations.”
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Continuing:
“United has cut more maintenance positions than any other U.S. airline,” Hoffa said, noting that United outsourced 45 percent of its aircraft maintenance expenses in 2006, three times the amount it outsourced in 1998. Hoffa also said the Teamsters would support the mechanics in their efforts to curb excessive executive compensation and restore their own retirement security.
“We’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with United mechanics as they try to rein in management greed and hold them accountable for foisting their pension obligations on U.S. taxpayers,” Hoffa said. “After two years of hard work, we now have the opportunity to work with the strength of a true union behind us to secure our futures,” said Rich Petrovsky, chairman of the Committee for Change, which spearheaded the organizing campaign.
The United victory is the latest in a series of organizing triumphs for the Teamsters. In the past three months, the Teamsters organized nearly 10,000 workers at UPS Freight since Jan. 16. ...There are 40,000 Teamsters airline employees, including more than 9,000 mechanics and related at 11 airlines.
The outsourcing issue as it pertains to aircraft maintenance reared its head earlier in the month as United was forced to ground seven of its Boeing 747 aircraft. Hoffa released a statement at the time, saying:
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said he is disturbed by reports that six United Airlines Boeing 747s were grounded on Thursday because of errors by a foreign repair station. The jumbo jets were grounded after it was discovered that improper pitot static testers—equipment used to test gauges that provide air data, such as the altimeter—were used by the facility to which United outsources its heavy maintenance in Busan, S. Korea.
“This just shows how risky it is to send airplanes offshore to be repaired,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Overseas repair stations simply don’t meet the same standards as U.S. repair stations. The FAA should no longer allow U.S. airlines to send their repairs overseas.”
Supervisors and inspectors who sign off on maintenance work at foreign repair stations are not required to hold either a Federal Aviation Administration repairman certificate or an Airframe and/or Powerplant certificate, nor are the mechanics working on the aircraft at these facilities. According to the FAA’s database, the South Korea repair station has only one certificated mechanic out of 38 employees.
The Transportation Department’s inspector general has reported that the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of foreign repair stations is uneven. Only 103 FAA inspectors (including management staff) are responsible for inspecting 692 foreign repair stations. Limited staff and travel budgets, and passport and visa controls, make unannounced inspections of these facilities virtually impossible.
“This incident is especially alarming, given that United has cut more maintenance positions than any other U.S. airline,” Hoffa said. ... United CEO Glenn Tilton proposed in August 2007 the sale of UAL’s maintenance division, including its heavy maintenance base in San Francisco, which employs more than 4,000 mechanics.
Even more bad news arrived for United today, as Andy Pasztor reports for the Wall Street Journal:
United Airlines has found wiring improperly connected to the main landing gear of three of its Airbus A320s, which company and government officials believe caused a pair of nonfatal runway accidents. ...
U.S. accident investigators and airline officials are focusing on test procedures developed years ago by the plane's manufacturer, the Airbus unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., to determine whether the landing gear is wired correctly. They are trying to determine whether the crossed wiring was missed because of mistakes by mechanics or because the test procedures are inadequate.
The debate also has raised questions about whether using outside mechanics contributed to United's troubles. United said it is cooperating with safety regulators. An Airbus spokesman said the company has no plans to change the test procedures.
The issue heated up after a United A320 skidded off the runway while landing at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, airport in late February, smashing into a snow bank but causing no injuries. United had a similar landing accident four months earlier, with two minor injuries, when one of its A320s briefly veered off a runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and destroyed some runway lights. The third miswired plane wasn't involved in an accident, company officials said.
The February accident sparked industry interest once investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said that improperly connected wiring most likely caused the jetliner's antiskid system to malfunction, although no formal finding has been made. The plane slid off the runway the same month maintenance had been performed on its landing gear by outside mechanics, according to company officials. The airline has since done multiple inspections of its A320 landing-gear wiring, using methods that are more extensive than those developed previously by Airbus, according to people familiar with the details.
The incidents have prompted an industry debate over how the miswiring took place and whether tests to verify the wiring are sufficient.
More on the UAL outsourcing fight from Chicago Tribune:
[D]uring 2005 and 2006 the carrier exceeded by nearly $480 million its agreement to keep such work in-house. The UAL Corp. subsidiary's contract with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association contains a clause that establishes a cap on how much work UAL can outsource. The union said it had retained an auditor to review whether United has been complying with its limit.
A review by the auditor found that United during 2005 exceeded the agreed-to limit by nearly $200 million, the union contended, and in 2006 the airline spent $280 million more than the contract allowed on outsourced maintenance.
"UAL's continued insistence on ignoring their excessive outsourcing damages the already strained relationship with UAL maintenance employees," AMFA Local 9 President Joseph Prisco said in a statement.Prisco, whose union represents more than half of United's mechanics, said that since 2001 the number of "mechanics and related staff" at United has dropped to 5,600 from 15,000.
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Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
FAA, Airlines Under the Gun
Reporters Christopher Conkey and Andy Pasztor over at the Wall Street Journal set the scene as we take the pulse of today's FAA and the airline industry it's charged with overseeing:
As it addresses concerns over airline inspections, the Federal Aviation Administration faces pressure from Congress and industry to change how it ensures the safety of air travel and how it overhauls the aging air-traffic-control system.
The agency was already dealing with a protracted labor battle, resistance to its congestion-relief initiatives and Democratic opposition to President Bush's nominee to head the FAA. Then, revelations surfaced this month that an FAA supervisor had let Southwest Airlines Co. keep flying older jets even though they had missed required inspections.
The FAA and airlines immediately afterward suggested the issue was a rare oversight. The FAA inspectors' union and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said a wider problem existed.
The agency changed course this week, initiating industry-wide maintenance audits at every airline.
In addition to Southwest, the article goes on to say that US Airways has since underperformed during an FAA spot check of its maintenance records. And, in related news, United announced the grounding of several of its 747s due to maintenance issues yesterday. Soaring fuel costs. Higher ticket prices. Cuts in service. Maintenance issues.
The difficulties mount for the airline industry -- and the FAA.
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
First, a look back at the scandal over improper FAA maintenance inspections at Southwest. Associated Press:
More background via Kim Zetter at Wired:
...[T]he FAA has fined Southwest $10.2 million for safety violations that include failing to conduct mandatory inspections and continuing to fly planes that the airline knew hadn't been inspected for fuselage cracks and fatigue. (After Southwest finally inspected the planes it discovered cracks in some of them, yet continued to fly them.) Investigators at the Federal Aviation Administration have also been accused by internal whistleblowers of being too cozy with the airline and failing to provide proper oversight of Southwest.
After the FAA announced its fine, Southwest grounded more than three dozen planes last week to conduct additional inspections -- these involved skin around the plane's windows that Boeing had suggested be inspected in a bulletin released back in 2002. ...
According to the FAA's findings, the airline had flown nearly four dozen jets on more than 59,000 flights before it realized that it hadn't conducted required safety inspections on the planes. Then, even after the airline became aware that it hadn't conducted inspections, it continued to fly 38 Boeing jets on a total of 1,451 flights without checking the planes.
When the airline finally got around to inspecting the planes, it found cracks in half a dozen of them -- including one crack that was nearly four inches long. ...[A] similar fracture caused an Aloha Airlines jet to rip apart in 1988.
Re: UAL, Julie Johnsson at Chicago Tribune reports:
United Airlines pulled aside seven Boeing 747s for reinspection on Thursday after discovering onboard technology that steers the giant aircraft clear of other planes in the air hadn't been maintained according to the Chicago-based airline's standards. ...
United acted after FAA inspectors discovered the Korean firm that handles heavy maintenance on United's jumbo jets had used improperly inspected equipment to test the systems that help the jets avoid midair collisions. The systems are critical given the recent push by regulators to reduce the amount of space between aircraft to help reduce overcrowding in the skies.
The test equipment at a facility operated by Korean Air in Busan, Korea, is used to calibrate the United 747s' altitude and air data computers to the precise level needed to let the planes fly within 1,000 feet vertically of other aircraft, instead of the 2,000-foot vertical separation that used to be the industry standard. ...
Airline maintenance is drawing fresh scrutiny from Congress and organized labor as carriers increasingly shift work to outside vendors, including maintenance shops based overseas. Critics contend that the quality of work is slipping because overtaxed FAA inspectors can't monitor work scattered across many repair stations as effectively as maintenance done in-house by airline workers.
The two unions vying to represent United's mechanics in a special election were quick to criticize the airline and federal inspectors for Wednesday's actions. "The issue is the FAA does not have the ability to monitor these facilities," said Joseph Prisco, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 9 in San Francisco.
Picking it up again with the WSJ:
Attention now is focusing on the agency's process for conducting inspections, the Air Transportation Oversight System, which relies on data submitted by the airlines. The system calls for the agency's roughly 3,000 inspectors to spend more time analyzing industry-provided data than conducting physical inspections. The inspectors' union, passenger groups and some lawmakers say that has essentially abdicated a regulatory role to the industry.
They take information from the carriers, put them into formulas and do very focused inspections," said Linda Goodrich, a vice president of the union that represents most FAA inspectors. "The carrier knows when we're showing up and exactly what we're going after."
Dave Michaels and Terry Maxon of the Dallas Morning News offer a revealing look at the genesis of the Air Transport Oversight System. In the interest of education, I'll quote a healthy passage, but recommend your reading the entire detail-heavy piece:
The FAA began moving away from its confrontational, cop-on-the-beat approach to policing the airlines after the 1996 ValuJet crash in Florida that killed 110 people. Even then, the FAA took blame for going easy on airlines in order to promote commercial aviation.
The FAA was faulted for poor oversight of ValuJet, an airline that grew quickly and farmed out almost all of its maintenance. The agency admitted that it didn't have enough inspectors to monitor the airline. It later prohibited the shipment of oxygen generators in cargo holds, where a fire started that brought down the plane.
"In a system as large as ours, you can't inspect every individual part or flight or airplane," said Andrew Steinberg, a former U.S. assistant secretary of transportation who left the agency this year. "Clearly you need some spot-checking, like there are traffic cops on the highways," he said. "But the basic framework for safety is to make sure the airlines' programs are in place to ensure safety."
The post-ValuJet era introduced big changes.
FAA inspectors now file fewer "enforcements," as investigations bearing sanctions are known. Instead, they're supposed to focus on the most serious risks – ones that cause accidents – by analyzing data provided by the airlines. The airlines are encouraged to self-report regulatory violations. By doing so, the companies can avoid fines. But they also learn lessons that prevent accidents, FAA officials said.
Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, said the approach strikes a balance between enforcement and information sharing, because "we have learned over the years that you can't enforce perfect safety." The equilibrium allows the FAA to "learn lessons before we see risk manifest itself as incidents or accidents," Ms. Gilligan said this week.
Even critics say that new approach, known as the Air Transportation Oversight System, makes sense. With ValuJet, a start-up airline that grew quickly, "it was impossible to get a handle on the enormous amount of stuff going on," Ms. Goodrich said. "We had no way to prioritize the risk."
Read the entire breathtaking piece.
[UPDATE Mar 26, 2008] Another airline, this time American, finds itself grounding its MD-80's for inspections today:
American Airlines canceled approximately 200 flights this morning to reinspect wiring on its fleet of MD-80 aircraft. Inspections take a few hours, and the company is rotating its MD-80 aircraft back into service as soon as they are cleared.
The need for the unscheduled inspections emerged during a Federal Aviation Administration audit of the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline's maintenance records. ... The FAA said today this was not a safety issue and explained that the inspection concerns a wiring bundle in the airplanes' wheel well. The airline is required to secure every one inch, and the aircraft in question may have had the bundles secured every 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inches.
The FAA is taking extra precautions on the heels of accusations that Southwest Airlines missed, or failed to document, airplane inspections. That prompted the FAA to announce it was proposing a $10.2 million fine against the carrier -- the largest fine ever imposed against a passenger airline.
Last week, the FAA announced a more far-reaching audit to ensure all airlines — more than 100 of them — are complying with maintenance requirements. ... American Airlines said "many inspections have already been completed and the aircraft are currently in service," according to its statement. "We are in the process of completing the inspections on the remaining airplanes and will return them to service on a rolling basis throughout the day."
The company operates 300 MD-80 aircraft, all of which are part of this reinspection. Congress plans to further examine airline inspection issues next month.
From the Associated Press:
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