2 Airline Fleets Appear to Pass FAA Scrutiny : At Half-Way Point, No Unusual Problems Arise at Continental, Eastern

An unprecedented plane-by-plane inspection of the fleets of Eastern and Continental airlines, now at the halfway point with several thousand inspections on the books, has not found any unusual problems, federal officials said Thursday.

Updating the FAA’s ongoing ramp inspections of all Eastern and Continental planes, FAA Administrator T. Allan McArtor said: “We’re not finding any extreme differences in the frequency of problems” at these two airlines as compared to past random inspections throughout the industry.

Of the several thousand inspections carried out, 7% to 8% of the Eastern inspections and about 3% of those at Continental have disclosed a problem that prompted temporary grounding.

But McArtor said that “these are not unusual percentages,” and the problems revealed--such as dents, small leaks, and a faulty hydraulic gauge--have not generally been severe. “We have not found anything that we would consider grossly unsafe,” he said.

Traffic Control System

In a related development, Transportation Secretary James H. Burnley IV, in danger of losing authority over the Federal Aviation Administration, announced that he will begin centralizing the nation’s air traffic control system and beefing up safety personnel at the troubled agency.

In the most sweeping move among a series of reforms, federal officials plan to overhaul the FAA’s management of safety standards and inspections--now filtered through nine regional centers--and consolidate control in Washington. The current regional system has been widely attacked as cumbersome, inefficient and unpredictable in safety standards.

The management reforms will have no visible effect on the flying public, officials conceded. But the restructuring, which does not require congressional approval, will likely be a volatile political issue in the current climate of heightened concern over air safety and doubt over the future of the FAA.

One Senate critic sounded an immediate warning to Burnley on the dangers of trying to sidetrack congressional plans for restructuring the FAA.

“I do not want the imagery of change involved in today’s announcement to be construed as being part of an effort to obscure the need for an independent FAA,” Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) said in a statement. “But the announced changes are of questionable value at a time when more fundamental changes are being discussed.”

Senate Movement

Ford is leading the current push in the Senate to free the FAA from what he calls the Transportation Department’s “needless meddling,” making it an independent monitor of the nation’s skies.

That movement gained momentum two weeks ago when a presidential commission urged the creation of an autonomous Federal Aviation Authority with a “safety czar” atop its management.

Burnley wants the FAA dismantled. The secretary calls the agency, beset by structural and managerial setbacks that he argues are rooted in its often-conflicting responsibilities, “an experiment which has failed.” He would like to keep key FAA duties, particularly safety oversight, within the Administration, but hasn’t said where.

In addition to centralizing the air control system, Burnley and FAA Administrator McArtor said at a press conference that they plan to give top-level administrators greater initial control over changes in safety standards and rules, streamline the agency’s procurement and budgeting processes and start a pilot program giving bonuses and financial incentives to lure more people into the depleted air controllers’ work force and other jobs.

Burnley said the series of changes, developed over the last six weeks by an internal task force that he appointed, “will increase the FAA’s effectiveness until such time as more sweeping reforms are enacted by Congress.”

Disagrees With Critics

The secretary, rebutting his critics, added that the changes “are in no way designed to take the place of fundamental reforms of the FAA. The suggestion . . . that today’s announcement is intended to fend off reform legislation and protect turf is false.”

Stephen D. Hayes, vice president of the Air Transport Assn., the leading industry trade group, said in a telephone interview: “The reforms suggested are a step in the right direction, a good move, but we feel very strongly that they should not diminish the need for more fundamental restructuring of the FAA.”