Advertisement

FAA to Institute Major Changes in Overseeing Airlines

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Federal Aviation Administration, acknowledging for the first time that its enforcement of airline safety standards is in question, announced historic changes Tuesday in the way it oversees the airline industry.

Among them, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena recommended that Congress amend the FAA’s legislative charter by eliminating its role in promoting air commerce and making safety its sole mission.

In addition, the agency ousted its longtime top safety official, Anthony J. Broderick. And it announced that it was instituting major regulatory changes to beef up safety compliance at newer airlines.

Advertisement

The FAA, long troubled by budgetary cutbacks in an era of airline growth, admitted that the crash of a ValuJet airliner last month in Florida that killed 110 people had exposed weaknesses in its procedures for guaranteeing the safety of the flying public.

“The FAA looked itself in the mirror,” Pena said. “It found that organizational and management changes were needed.”

Underlying many of the changes was concern that the FAA was facing a potential crisis of confidence by the traveling public, which long has relied on the FAA to ensure its safety.

In his public resignation letter to FAA Administrator David Hinson, Broderick bluntly raised the public confidence issue.

“The events of the past week mandate that you make major visible changes to improve the public confidence in the safety of our transportation system,” Broderick said.

Hinson acknowledged that the agency was suffering through a “fairly gloomy” period in which even he has questioned whether budget cutbacks have depleted too many of the agency’s resources.

Advertisement

The ValuJet accident brought home to the agency that its method of overseeing the airline industry was predicated on conditions that in many cases no longer exist: large, stable airlines that buy their aircraft off the assembly line, maintain the planes themselves and carefully train their own pilots.

Though deregulation was set in motion 18 years ago, only in recent years has the pace of change in the industry accelerated to the point where the FAA has dealt with a substantially transformed industry.

ValuJet, like other low-cost start-up airlines, purchased older aircraft, contracted out maintenance to a disorganized patchwork of contractors and relied exclusively on outsiders to train its pilots. Carriers who follow such practices have become widely known as “virtual airlines.”

“The FAA must adjust and be able to fully evaluate the safety of all these methods of operation,” Pena said, clearly suggesting that it had slipped behind.

The new regulations outlined by Hinson would require all airlines to certify that their outside contractors for maintenance and training are complying with federal safety regulations. The new rules also would require the airlines to disclose all the outsiders performing such services and subject the outside contractors to direct FAA oversight.

Hinson also directed a review of a broad range of safety concerns that were raised by a recent study conducted by the consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Advertisement

The report, issued earlier this year, said that serious potential problems might lie ahead if the FAA’s budget continues on its current downward trajectory. Hinson said that the 90-day review would look at staffing standards, workload distribution and contract services.

He said that he and Broderick “have both worried that the FAA may not have the resources, financial resources, it needs long term to do the job the American people require of us. This industry is growing at an exceptionally rapid rate.”

The FAA’s announcements were believed to represent an urgent effort to reassure the public about the agency’s ability to oversee safety, said Tim Neale, a spokesman for the Airline Transport Assn., a trade group representing major airlines.

“Our members know how important it is to ensure safety,” Neale said. “But the public wants a government policeman doing the job. It is important that the public have confidence in that policeman.”

Hinson and Pena have been heatedly questioned about why they were so quick to assure the public immediately after the May 11 accident that ValuJet was still safe to fly, only to decide this week that the discount carrier was so badly run that it would have to suspend operations.

Hinson said that a closer examination of the airline after the accident disclosed the problems that led to its grounding.

Advertisement

It remained unclear how much impact the regulatory charter changes, including the elimination of the FAA’s role as promoter of air travel, would have on the agency’s day-to-day operations.

Neale said: “I can’t think of a good example where they promote aviation commerce.” But critics have long believed that the agency gives too much weight to the economic impact of its key decisions on airlines and aircraft manufacturers.

Ironically, Broderick’s departure is likely to trigger new concerns about the FAA’s capabilities, said John E. O’Brien, director of engineering and air safety at the Air Line Pilots Assn., a union.

“If there is a crisis coming, we would rather have Mr. Broderick there,” O’Brien said. “He is one of the more capable career bureaucrats at the FAA.

“I don’t think he was pushed out. Rather, he is frustrated by the environment at the FAA, hamstrung because they don’t have the resources to do what they are supposed to be doing.”

Broderick, who was associate administrator for regulation and certification for about two decades, had become increasingly outspoken within the aviation community, recently expressing his own deep reservations about FAA budget cuts. In the end, his candor became unacceptable, FAA officials acknowledged.

Advertisement

Hinson named Barry L. Valentine, currently assistant FAA administrator for policy, planning and international aviation, to fill Broderick’s job while the agency seeks a permanent replacement.

* SURIVAL AT STAKE: ValuJet stock plunges, but airline expects quick return. D1

Advertisement