US Watchdog Says FAA, Southwest Ties Too Close

[marmar]

from Reuters, via Airwise.com:



April 4, 2008

US Federal Aviation Administration oversight of Southwest Airlines maintenance was so cozy the agency allowed the carrier to violate safety orders repeatedly for years and put travelers at risk, a government watchdog said on Thursday.

Calvin Scovel, inspector general of the Transportation Department, told a House of Representatives hearing the problem likely extends to other airlines -- but not nationwide.

"FAA oversight lapses at the local and national level allowed weakness in Southwest's maintenance program to go undetected for years," Scovel told a 9-1/2 hour hearing by the House Transportation Committee.

Last month the FAA proposed fining Southwest a record USD$10.2 million for knowingly operating aircraft that were not in compliance with an agency order to check for fuselage cracks.

Scovel said the FAA regional office in Dallas, which is responsible for Southwest oversight, "developed an overly collaborative relationship" with the carrier.

This allowed Southwest to repeatedly self-disclose violations of mandatory FAA safety directives with an agency "rubber stamp" and no follow up, which is required to avoid fines, Scovel said.

Southwest, according to Scovel, had inspection lapses dating to 1999. Most recently, the airline violated four different safety directives eight times since December 2006, including five this year.

Scovel said the breakdown in compliance at Southwest "unnecessarily increased risk" to travelers.

Southwest said it aggressively inspects planes and has always been safe, while the FAA characterized any problems at Southwest, including the lapsed inspections for cracks, as isolated and dealt with. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1207277333.html

[libnnc]

1. kick

[AdHocSolver]

2. Like everything else, the right-wing has "privatized" the FAA, and aviation safety ...

has been compromised as the cost to consumers, and taxpayers, has risen.

Aviation services that used to be under the control of the FAA are now handled by private companies with little FAA oversight. Airplane maintenance is one of them.

Several airlines now outsource aircraft maintenance. To get the work done cheaply, many aircraft are being sent to Mexico, El Salvador, and China. Yes, China! The country that sells us poisoned pet food, and lead laced toys, now fixes the airplanes on which YOU may fly.

These countries are off-limits to FAA inspectors, so the FAA only requires that an FAA licensed mechanic signs off on the repair. (It is unclear whether that licensed mechanic has to actually personally inspect the repairs.)

It is unclear who trains these foreign mechanics. In better times, new aircraft mechanics could take courses in aircraft maintenance and then serve apprenticeships under FAA licensed mechanics. Today, the modern airliner could be serviced by a guy with an eighth grade education who, six months ago, was repairing powered lawn mowers.

One scam the airlines could be pulling with outsourcing maintenance, in order to hide profits (so that they could beg for taxpayer bailouts) is to set up "independent" maintenance companies which are actually owned by the airline executives. These "dummy" corporations could then charge the "going" rate for airline repairs, while using cheap foreign labor to do the work. The profits get back to the airline executives, but the profits don't show up on the airlines' ledgers. This is a technique used by Enron to "cook" the books.