FAA Cites Commuter Airline Infractions

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that an inspection of the fast-growing commuter airline industry, rocked last year by 10 crashes and 58 fatalities, uncovered more than 1,200 infractions.

The FAA said the violations ranged from failure to fill top jobs with qualified people--including, in one case, a chief pilot--to inadequate control over training, maintenance and operations.

FAA Administrator Allan McArtor wrote in a letter to each of the more than 100 commuter carriers: “I am particularly concerned about what appears to be systemic deficiencies with management personnel.”

McArtor said, “The most serious findings . . . reflected a lack of management knowledge of . . . complex commuter air carrier regulations as well as substandard administration of training and deficient aircraft inspection.”

The FAA said agency inspectors would visit each commuter airline during the next three months to discuss the findings and to help with improvements.

The wave of commuter plane crashes last year reversed what had been a steady improvement in the industry’s safety record since 1980.

In 1986, the industry reported its fewest fatalities ever--four. In 1979, it recorded its record high--66.

This year, the safety record again improved with two accidents and 21 deaths so far. There have been no accidents since last spring’s FAA inspection.

The agency said in its report that many of the problems it uncovered resulted from the “rapid growth of the commuter industry and the transition to larger, more complex aircraft with which existing management is not knowledgeable.”

Since the deregulation of the airlines a decade ago, passenger traffic on commuter lines more than doubled, from 12.9 million to 27.2 million.

The FAA said that all of the 1,248 infractions it uncovered had been corrected but that a third of them could result in fines of up to $1,000 each.