FAA Under Fire for Not Ensuring Pilots Follow Safety Rules

The National Transportation Safety Board has sharply criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for not ensuring that its pilots adhere to the same safety requirements the agency expects of commercial and private pilots.

The criticism, in an NTSB letter to FAA Administrator David Hinson on Wednesday, arose from the board’s investigation of an Oct. 26 crash of an FAA inspection aircraft near Front Royal, Va., in which all three occupants were killed.

Although the specific cause of the crash had not been determined, the five board members wrote that “the performance of the flight crew raises such serious concerns that the safety board believes the FAA should take immediate action” to ensure the agency’s 55 planes are being flown safely.

FAA spokesman Pat Cariseo said that the agency does not dispute the NTSB’s findings and “has either complied or intends to comply with all of its recommendations.”

When the FAA plane, a Beech Super King Air, was last heard from by air traffic controllers, it reported flying less than 500 feet above the ground.

The safety board said that the pilot was flying low without reliance on navigational instruments even though weather conditions were considered too poor to fly visually. The aircraft struck a tree-covered ridge obscured by clouds.

NTSB investigators said they learned that fellow FAA workers had complained about the pilot in the past but that supervisors took no action against him.