Showing posts with label Southwest Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southwest Airlines. 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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Friday, April 4, 2008
ATA Airlines Becomes Second Carrier in a Week to Fold
More bad news arrives with the folding of ATA, the second airline in a week to abruptly cancel all flights and cease operations. Dawn Gilbertson and Toby Phillips for the Arizona Republic:
ATA Airlines, which offered daily nonstop service between Phoenix and Hawaii, suddenly shut down overnight after filing for bankruptcy. The last flight to operate was a Honolulu-to-Phoenix red eye due into Sky Harbor International Airport this morning. ...
Indianapolis-based ATA, which has been struggling financially and recently ended its Chicago operations, blamed the shutdown on the loss of a key military charter flight contract. Many passengers aboard the final ATA flight from Honolulu this morning said they were thankful that they made it to the mainland, but many others didn't know how or when they would be able to get back.
"I didn't realize that there was no flight returning when I left," said Hannah Smith, in Phoenix to visit family. ATA typically offered the cheapest tickets to the islands, Smith said. "That's where I live," she said. "I've got to get back."
Frances Fuller said she lives in Hawaii about half of every year, flying to and from Phoenix often. "I have about $1600 worth of plane tickets booked," Fuller said. She was unsure what her next steps would be. "My bank card company certainly wont give me a refund," she said.
Shocked that the airline gave no warning of the shutdown, Fuller said she felt for those who were suddenly without jobs. When agents gave passengers the news that all other flights would be canceled, Fuller said, "All I kept thinking was that they all just lost their jobs."
"It was a very sad morning."
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
From WISH-TV Channel 8:
From KGMB-Channel 9 (video at link):
Getting to the mainland is no easy feat for stranded ATA passengers. One day after the carrier folded, hundreds paid to hop on a special flight to the west coast, but thousands more are still looking for seats. The frustration is growing at Honolulu International Airport. Long lines and lots of waiting as another round of stranded ATA airlines passengers scramble to find seats out of Hawaii.
"I just need, I gotta go to school. I can't be down here forever," said Florianne Molina of Vallejo California. Fortunately, Florianne Molina and nearly 300 others left with useless ATA tickets got out on a special Hawaiian airlines flight to San Francisco. But they did have to pay for it. $320 each.
Lieutenant Colonel Loren Weeks on vacation before deployment to the war zone also got a seat, but his travel problems aren't over yet. "I'm heading to Kansas to get possibly another ATA, well, flight to fly us into theater, and who knows that flight's on hold as well," said Weeks.
George Avalos for the San Jose Mercury News:
ATA's abrupt demise marked the second time this week that a major carrier serving the Oakland-Hawaii route suddenly terminated operations. On Monday, Aloha Airlines halted operations, just days after it had filed for bankruptcy. Aloha's collapse also erased flights between Oakland and Hawaii, along with other destinations.
ATA blamed the loss of a military contract for its shutdown. The airline said it depended on the revenue from the government deal tooffset a "tremendous spike in the cost of jet fuel." Aloha blamed its shutdown on soaring fuel prices and fierce competition in the mainland-to-Hawaii corridor.
Passengers who arrived at the Oakland airport Thursday were greeted by a deserted ATA counter and signs that stated the airline had filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations. "Now what? I don't know what to do," said Ed Mitchell, who was traveling with his wife, Chang Chi, and their two sons from Seattle to Hawaii. "I've been all over the world. This is the first time we've gotten stuck."
The Mitchell family had planned a birthday celebration on Maui for children Ivan, 9 and Ian, 8. "I hope we get a plane," Ivan said. "We've been planning this for a long time." ... "This is very challenging for our airport," said Robert Bernardo, a spokesman for the Oakland airport. "We no longer have direct flights to Hawaii. Since 2000, we had direct flights to the Hawaiian islands."
Together, ATA and Aloha accounted for 4.8 percent of the Oakland airport's 14.6million departing passengers during 2007, Bernardo said. That equates to about 700,800 passengers. ATA represented about 3.4 percent, or 496,400 passengers leaving the airport. Aloha generated about 1.8 percent of the business, or 204,400 passengers.
"We are working very hard to find other carriers who will provide that service to Hawaii," Bernardo said. Officials were hopeful the airport could land one or more replacements before long.
Unusual measures are being used to help stranded passengers notes Mary Forgione for the Los Angeles Times:
The Hawaii Tourism Authority is going to pay for charter flights to help the estimated 9,000 tourists stranded on the islands since ATA went under this week — the first time the agency has spent money on such a venture.
“We’ve never done this before and we hope we’ll never have to do it again,” Rex Johnson, chief executive of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, said today after the agency had an emergency meeting to authorize funding.
Ted Evanoff and Zach Dunkin for the Indianapolis Star report on the employee reaction:
Two years after emerging from bankruptcy, ATA Airlines filed for Chapter 11 again today, surprising employees who doubt the Indianapolis-based carrier will ever fly again.
ATA, founded in the city in 1973, was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2006 by the New York investment firm Matlin Patterson. Laid-off pilots hope to secure new jobs with the other two carriers the investor has bought over the last two years - North American and World Airways, both based in Atlanta and part of Matlin's Global Aero Logistics.
Employees including pilots and flight attendants lashed out today at the management installed since the original October 2004 bankruptcy filing. "The most glaring single factor in cessation of operations was grossly incompetent management from the time of the bankruptcy going forward," said Seth Cooperman, a Boeing 737 pilot at ATA.
Dropping the New York LaGuardia and Washington Reagan routes sapped passengers from the West Coast leisure routes to Hawaii even as fuel prices rose and the airline spent heavily to bring online mothballed DC10s, employees said. A deal with Southwest Airlines funneled passengers to certain routes shared by both carriers, but Cooperman said it appears the transaction was not profitable enough to sustain the carrier.
"They’ve closed their doors. It doesn’t look like they are going to reopen,’’ said Jacki Pritchett, an ATA flight attendant since the 1970s.
ATA employs 2,300, including about 560 workers in Indianapolis. Local employment alone is down from more than 2,000 employees four years ago when the discount carrier was the nation's No. 10 passenger airline and the largest carrier serving Indianapolis. All the local routes were dropped in bankruptcy, including the popular Indianapolis-to-Florida flights.
Southwest in turn took over many of those routes.
The scathing response by ATA's pilot's union, ALPA:
The union representing the pilots of ATA Airlines is condemning the airline's management for its callous disregard of its employees and passengers in canceling all operations without warning early on Thursday morning.
"By shutting down in the middle of the night, this management group has let down its loyal customers and the flight crews, cabin crews, mechanics, and other employees who have made deep sacrifices over the past few years to keep ATA afloat," said Capt. Steve Staples, chairman of the ATA unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l. "It shows an utter lack of respect and illustrates the ruthlessness of Wall Street hedge fund managers who have no knowledge or interest in the companies they own."
ALPA was notified at approximately 4:00 a.m. Central time that the airline was filing for bankruptcy and shutting down all operations immediately. The airline's last flight was ATA Flight 4586, a morning red-eye from Honolulu to Phoenix that was scheduled to land at 8:34 a.m. Pacific time.
"ATA's customers and employees had absolutely no warning that the airline was going out of business," Staples said. "This abrupt withdrawal is the airline equivalent of getting on the last helicopter out of Saigon."
The April 3 announcement that ATA is ceasing operations is two days shy of the first anniversary of ATA's announcement that its holding company was buying World Airways and North American Airlines. On April 5, 2007, ATA Holdings changed its name to Global Aero Logistics (GAL) and, in August 2007 completed the transaction that gave it three airlines: ATA, World, and North American. GAL is privately held by the hedge fund MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners II.
"We find it unusually coincidental that ALPA, which was in contract negotiations with ATA and had the best opportunity to change our collective bargaining agreement to reflect the new realities of the industry, was suddenly forced to shut down while World and North American will continue operating under the Global Aero Logistics banner," Staples said.
"Since when does the acquiring airline go out of business while the acquired airlines keep flying?"
Staples said that all ATA employees are the ultimate victims of a series of incompetent managers who chose to blame economic conditions for the airline's problems instead of admitting their own mistakes.
"We were telling management two years ago that they needed to institute a fuel management program, and even found a fuel consultant who offered to work with the company - but our overtures to help ATA reduce its fuel costs were repeatedly ignored," he said. "Management decided to outsource virtually all of our maintenance, then acquired elderly, unreliable DC-10s that needed extensive repairs. The ripple effect of years of poor management decisions - not the current economy - was what doomed ATA."
Staples said the union's top priority is making sure that all 585 ATA pilots and flight engineers find new jobs, especially since part of ATA's fleet has been transferred to World Airways and more airplanes could go to World and North American later.
"Our position is that we are pilots of Global Aero Logistics, which is still operating, and we deserve to be in the cockpits of Global's airliners. Our contract says that the pilots go with the airplanes, and we will use every legal means available to us to ensure that our members' rights are protected," he said.
Hawaii is holding a job fairs for Aloha and ATA employees now out of work due to the shutdowns. Melinda Peer at Forbes looks at the business aspects of the events of this week:
On Thursday, ATA Airlines became the latest carrier to land itself in bankruptcy, citing high fuel prices, competition and the U.S. economic slowdown.
The complaints have become a refrain for the beleaguered airline industry and aren't expected to get better anytime soon. In early April, the International Air Transport Association cut its 2008 industry earnings forecast for the second time just a day after reporting that February's global passenger load factor slipped 0.6% from a year ago.
"The broadening impact of the U.S. credit crunch has brought buoyant consumer confidence to an abrupt end. Oil prices continue to rise. Demand is softening and after the 64% improvement in labor productivity and an 18% reduction in non-fuel unit cost attained since 2001, efficiency gains are much more difficult to achieve," said Giovanni Bisignani, the association's chief executive.
More analysis from David Field for Airline Business:
Fuel has gone from 1.25 cents per available seat mile for the majors in the second quarter of 2000 to 3.50 cents in 2007's second quarter, Swelbar notes, adding that labour costs dropped from 3.50 per ASM to 3.00 cents between the same periods.
Although ATA operated only 29 jets, it had a long history and was an early proponent of a blending of the low-fare model with the network model. But ATA had gradually retreated from the low-fare scheduled business as it increasingly came to rely on charter business and on effective "virtual charters" it operated as codeshares for Southwest Airlines. Much like Aloha, it had gone through a bankruptcy from which it emerged as private carrier in late 2004. ...
At ATA, the challenge came when one of its major charter customers, FedEx, announced it would not be renewing ATA's military charter sub-contract for the next US government fiscal year, which begins in October. ATA said the contract was supposed to last another year. ATA had already trimmed its scheduled service dramatically, announcing a month ago that it would end all service at Chicago Midway, the airport it had made synonymous with low fares, and would also end its West Coast/Hawaii service in June. Southwest, which said its arrangements with ATA also ended on 4 April, had expanded its Midway presence significantly by buying ATA gates at the airport. ...
George Hamlin, a consultant with ACA Associates, called Hawaii "a microcosm of the US market: a duopoly of Aloha and the larger Hawaiian Airlines in a market that could not sustain the entry of an additional carrier in this fuel-price environment". Hamlin thinks other airline failures are entirely possible, and that Columbus, Ohio-based Skybus could fail "relatively soon". The larger US carriers may have enough cash for the year, says Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl, but "if high fuel prices and a lacklustre economy persist through 2009, cash reserves at many airlines might become a concern".
This week also claimed a smaller charter carrier, Champion Air, which said it was hobbled by its fuel-swilling Boeing 727s and would end its operations in May. Champion said it too lost a major customer when Northwest Airlines' vacations subsidiary MLT said it would stop using the carrier.
Elsewhere in the USA, Sun Country said it would furlough 45 of its 156 pilots for the summer in a 30% cutback forced on it by the cost of fuel. The decision was made by the privately held low-cost carrier's new chief executive, former AirTran chief financial officer Stan Gadek.
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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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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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