FAA’s Safety Inspections Are Called Flawed and Dangerous

For the third time in four years, the General Accounting Office--the investigative arm of Congress--has found fault with the airline inspection program operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, contending it is so flawed that the welfare of passengers is endangered.

One of the most significant problems, the GAO said, is the FAA’s lack of follow-up; it has no idea whether recommendations it makes for repairs or replacements are ever undertaken.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency that investigates airline crashes, poor inspections have been a contributing factor in numerous accidents--including one in 1988 in which a section of a fuselage disintegrated in a 19-year-old Aloha Airlines jet and another in 1989 in which nine passengers were hurled to their deaths when a cargo door tore off a United Airlines 747.

While the FAA contends it has responded to problems uncovered by the GAO, the problem of inadequate inspections will once again be the subject of congressional hearings early next year.

BACKGROUND: Together the FAA and the airlines are responsible for the safety of U.S. air passengers. However, the GAO study found that in fiscal 1990, FAA inspectors spent only 23% of their time performing routine investigations of airline operations and maintenance, instead of the required 35%.

The findings were similar to those of a 1987 study--and subsequent ones--when investigators found that inspectors spent insufficient time on surveillance and that the FAA was unaware of the shortcoming.

The GAO study also criticized the FAA for failing to make the required three annual inspections of each airline. Such inspections focus on pilot performance and flight crew training, maintenance and the electronic components of aircraft.

Thirty-six percent of U.S. airlines--1,305 out of 3,600--did not receive all three inspections in 1990, the report said.

Nearly all of those airlines were “air taxis,” small operators that fly unscheduled routes, the GAO said. These small airlines had an accident rate 15 times greater than major airlines had in 1990, the GAO reported.

The GAO also faulted the FAA for failing to discern whether its inspectors follow up on violations they discover.

In fiscal 1990, FAA inspectors found 9,115 problems, but the FAA did not know how many were corrected, the report said.

ISSUES: The FAA does not dispute flaws in its inspection program, but contends that overall safety is unaffected. It attributes its inability to do more frequent and thorough inspections to personnel shortages--a problem the GAO also acknowledges.

FAA officials say that inspectors have time to follow up only on serious problems.

Mary Ann Kruslicky, who worked on the GAO report, agreed that “part of (the problem) is a resources issue. We’ve repeatedly said (the FAA) probably will never have enough resources to do the job.”

But David Traynham, a spokesman for the aviation subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Public Works, contended that while the FAA attempts to respond to each negative report, “there continue to be management deficiencies in certain areas, and that is of concern.”

FAA officials say they have been working for several years to create and install an automated system that would help keep track of inspections.

The Department of Transportation also defended the FAA, contending in a written response to the GAO report that: “It is an overstatement to conclude that FAA does not know whether safety problems were corrected or the severity of conditions found.”

The FAA said that although improvements in the inspection system still need to be made, there is no danger to the flying public.

“I think we’re doing our jobs to the best of our ability and the public has nothing to fear,” said Bill Wihycomb, a division manager at the FAA’s national field office for flight standards at Dulles International Airport here.