Deregulation Comes in for a Hard Landing: FAA under Scrutiny as Safety Issues Mount
By Carl Finamore
One of 70-million travelers a year, I flew out of Chicago’s huge four-terminal O’Hare airport to San Francisco on April 9 in a United Airline B-767 aircraft. The large Boeing jet holds 244 passengers and was unexpectedly full.
Optimistically hoping for a first-class upgrade or at least an aisle, I had to settle for the dreaded middle cushion. I purposely selected a flight only a few days earlier that had many open seats. But to no avail.
With each such unlucky break in life, I think maybe I should not have rebelled against Catholicism at such an early age. Perhaps I could more easily endure four and half hours of airborne misery in the heavenly skies if consoled by the thought I was serving some weird type of worldly penance for sins both committed and enjoyed.
I am apparently condemned to seek more earthly explanations for my duress.
1,100 flight cancellations by American Airlines on my chosen travel day is the short answer. The carrier would ditch another 900 flights the following day. Ultimately, over 250,000 passengers would be stranded as the carrier rushed to make adjustments to “wiring bundles” on its fleet of 300 MD-80’s.
Similar maintenance problems never before publicly disclosed hit several other major carriers, affecting many tens of thousands of passengers. It suddenly became very clear that there was more to worry about than my seat assignment.
Inside the Private World of Aircraft Maintenance
It all started in early March with the much-publicized Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) record fine of $10.2 million against consumer-friendly Southwest Airlines (SWA). The flying public was given its first good look inside the private world of aircraft maintenance. It wasn‘t very pretty.
For example, contrary to its popular image, Southwest deliberately avoided safety checks and knowingly flew an estimated 145,000 passengers on uninspected aircraft. Six of these aircraft were subsequently discovered to have cracks very similar to those that led to a catastrophic accident over Hawaii in 1988.
In that memorable incident, the cabin top of a B-737 fuselage blew off while at 24,000 ft. One flight attendant was immediately ejected leaving 94 other strapped-in passengers and crew gasping for oxygen.
Incredulously, the crippled Aloha Airline aircraft landed safely with only that one tragic fatality. This frightening example is still vividly recalled by safety experts because it immediately increased awareness of the deadly consequences of corrosion and metal fatigue.
New and effective industry standards for regular inspection of every individual part and each area of the fuselage became mandatory requirements.
These are extremely critical tasks dutifully observed by all employees anywhere near an aircraft. They have to. There are some 25,000 take offs and landings each day in the United States carrying around 1.6 million passengers.
Most of us have seen ground crews and pilots doing these “walk around” visual observations looking for defects after each “touch down.” These are in addition to closer inspections performed by trained mechanics with sophisticated instruments during regularly scheduled maintenance checks.
It was shocking, therefore, when it was recently reported that top FAA officials knew of lapses in SWA inspections for cracks and yet still gave the carrier a free ride. Worse, it was learned safety-conscious FAA inspectors were overruled when they reported the violations.
In testimony this month before Congress, Department of Transportation Inspector General (IG) Calvin L. Scovel III, who has oversight over the FAA, frankly admitted that FAA superiors “developed an overly collaborative relationship” with carriers that “appears to allow, rather than mitigate, recurring safety violations.”
It was an observation echoed by Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn), chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. There was a “cozy relationship between the FAA and airlines and a lack of an enforcement mind-set,” said Obestar.
These embarrassing disclosures prompted a full-scale investigation of other U.S. air carriers. Just in the last few weeks, American Airlines repaired wiring on 145 aircraft and United grounded its total fleet of B-777s to repair fire suppression devices.
Predictably, neither the FAA nor the carriers considered any of the infractions very serious. There is disagreement on this point but even the most critical independent safety experts are quick to reassure that the skies remain the safest at any time in history.
Can I Please See Your License?
However, it is more difficult to dismiss serious weaknesses in the FAA’s oversight processes and of the industry’s current deteriorating level of aircraft maintenance. Both were exposed in the last few weeks as grossly inadequate.
This is not big news among keen airline observers.
Speculation had been flying around for a long time that the FAA was tailing behind domestic airlines it was pledged to oversee. Lack of FAA oversight became particularly glaring in the last several years when most of the majors began dismantling their time-tested, high-quality, maintenance programs.
Big changes occurred with the accelerated outsourcing of “in house” maintenance. The latest debacles are evidence that most of the changes are not good.
For example, U.S. airlines historically required an FAA-certified Aircraft & Powerplant (A&P) license before anyone touched an aircraft.
All repair work was done by these qualified mechanics, the overwhelming majority represented by a labor union. When a supervisor pressured a mechanic to speed up or to rush a job, a complaint to the union flight-safety representative would quickly squash the uncomfortable situation.
The latter was not an uncommon occurrence. Many national safety experts recognize the excellent safety record of U.S. carriers resulted from this checks-and-balances relationship.
Who now performs this important safety function?
U.S. airlines are estimated to contract out 53% of their maintenance, up from 37% in 1996. The industry doesn’t even pretend this is being done to advance safety; it openly acknowledges it is being done to save money.
Of course, the question is raised: Does cutting costs also lead to taking shortcuts and risks that reduce safety? No, at least according to the FAA.
Yes, current government policy allows FAA-licensed maintenance operators to outsource work to unlicensed facilities and yes, unlicensed shops legally operate without prior FAA verification of the quality of their work.
Ultimately, however, the FAA is satisfied as long as a licensed mechanic approves the work of an unspecified number of others who do not possess the coveted A&P license.
Thus, in our post-outsourcing world, licensed mechanics are signing off work they themselves do not personally perform. It is also improbable to assume they observe each and every aspect of the operation performed by these unlicensed workers.
Outsourcing Flies Under FAA Radar
In any case, the FAA has no way to monitor this work because it admits to not even knowing the location or number of unlicensed shops operating through agreements with the major carriers.
This major crack in the system was revealed several years ago but is only now getting the attention it deserves.
A 2005 Department of Transportation IG report, for example, indicated the FAA never inspected approximately 1,400 unlicensed repair facilities including 104 outside the U.S. The same report stated that a mere 71 FAA inspectors oversee 698 certified facilities outside the U.S.
Consumer Reports writes that even licensed facilities “are sometimes found to hire unskilled and untrained employees.” Even more worrisome, when asked how U.S. carriers follow up to ensure the outsourced work has been done properly by their vendors, the Department of Transportation Inspector General responded that carriers “rely mostly on telephone calls to the repair shops with which they’ve contracted.”
Now that’s reassuring.
Numerous warnings in the last few years about the dangers of massively outsourcing maintenance to low-cost facilities have mostly been discounted by the FAA as nothing more than jet blast from disgruntled unions and furloughed mechanics.
Recent Congressional sworn testimony proves otherwise. Rep. Obestar stated his concern about outsourced repair facilities not always being certified. Maintenance is “not being done with the same oversight,” said Obestar. “What we have is the potential of major failure.”
The FAA is cruising along with an extremely-flawed flight plan extending “EZ Check-In” privileges to low-cost vendors, some licensed, some not.
FAA in the Clouds, Maintenance on the Ground
Another constant criticism in the last few years from conscientious inspectors within the FAA is that the agency has greatly reduced “hands on” inspections of low-bid contractors.
Marion Blakey, head of the FAA, ridiculed these objections in a public television NewsHour interview (June 9, 2005): “It is a very old-fashioned approach to looking at safety oversight because in fact these days it’s not about standing over someone’s shoulder in the middle of the night and seeing if they’re turning the wrench in the right direction.”
The FAA instead relies on overseeing computer module maintenance systems. Again, according to Consumer Reports, it is an “electronic surveillance system, dubbed the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS), that relies less on inspection and more on statistical trends.”
Supporters claim this is a more modern approach to rapid technological advances in the industry. What it means in practice is that Ms. Blakey deflects criticisms by repeating ad naseum the very fortunate statistical trend that “no major airline incident has occurred since November 2001.”
Veteran FAA employees see it otherwise. They argue that primarily relying on examination of computer grids is too distant from the necessary grunt inspection work that occurs on the ground where actual maintenance occurs.
They also claim the FAA system places far too must trust in carriers and vendors who are expected to self monitor their compliance, based on the supposedly idyllic computer program outline.
In today’s political atmosphere where U.S. government policy places all trust in the deregulated market, it’s no surprise the FAA confidently delegates authority of critical safety inspection to powerful carriers.
Nonetheless, for us non-believers in the all-knowing, beneficent corporate market, this is a huge concern.
The House Committee on Transportation’s investigation into airline safety confirmed these doubts. The end result is that a very troubling picture emerges of the FAA being far too cozy with domestic airlines it is pledged to monitor.
Carl Finamore is former President (ret), Air Transport Employees, Local Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He can be reached at: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/cfinamore
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: aircraft maintenance, deregulation, FAA, outsourcing
Dear Mr. Finamore and editors,
I was pleasantly surprised, as a former reporter and someone who has read a lot of copy on the airline maintenance crisis from a Google Alert (my daughter is due to fly home to Pittsburgh), that Mr. Finamore was able to write a fresh and informative story that caught newly-expressed, bottom-line facts. This is obviously from the fact that Mr. F. has enjoyed actual hands-on experience and consequently the insight that comes from actual experience in the industry. Congratulations to the writer and editors at the DSA Labor Network. Sincerely, Jim Barrett
Quiet Rockland
Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
217 East 86th Street, PMB 221
New York, NY 10028 USA
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
e-mail: brightline@att.net
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Quiet Rockland Urges America To REJECT Robert A. (“Bobby”) Sturgell As FAA Administrator
In the lyrics of Dewey Bunnell of the group America, from their 1971 song entitled “Sandman”:
“All the planes have been – grounded”.
It’s time to bring back America. The REAL America. The FAA is more broken than the cracked airplanes it purports to regulate. FAA Head “Bobby” Sturgell is a losing legacy case – the son of J. Edgar Hoover’s personal secretary, planted years later at the FAA, an agency that the powers-that-be assumed Sturgell could never muck up. Well, that failed legacy case named “Bobby” Sturgell DID muck it all up. Big time. The United States aviation system is now at flashpoint crisis. Enter, Sandman.
Quiet Rockland opposes Robert A. “Bobby” Sturgell’s confirmation as FAA Administrator. Moreover, Quiet Rockland calls for “Bobby” Sturgell’s SUMMARY REMOVAL as Acting FAA Administrator. “Bobby” Sturgell is an abominable public official. The current regime of the FAA is a dismal nightmare. The FAA is a guileful federal agency still dwelling in the pocket of industry. Together, Sturgell, the FAA, and the airlines derisively and contemptuously laugh at you and me, the American people – the people to whom this country belongs. But no more.
This spring started with cracked Southwest Airlines planes. The FAA allowed these planes to remain in revenue service. The FAA allowed passengers to fly in these cracked airplanes. And Southwest was more than happy to take money from passengers for flying in these cracked planes. Now but a few weeks later, at least four airlines have filed for federal bankruptcy protection, with more bankruptcy filings that may follow. The airline industry is disintegrating before our eyes just like the tired old defective planes which they pretend to maintain.
This past week saw record numbers, in the thousands, of planes grounded. The groundings are “Bobby” Sturgell’s fault. The groundings are the direct result of a previously-illusory safety inspection regime and the astounding and unlawful regulatory ineptitude of the FAA, now under FBI investigation and Congressional investigation. The results of the groundings to the everyday American, were and are intolerable. Many thousands of travelers were stranded, and we are told by some that the problem may continue through the summer and beyond. This is what “Bobby” Sturgell would have all Americans endure for FIVE more years if he is confirmed as FAA Administrator? He MUST be joking.
Moreover, “Bobby” Sturgell now threatens our national stability and security. As John Dean observed almost two generations ago at the outset of the long national nightmare known as Watergate, there is a cancer growing on the Presidency. There is a cancer growing on the Administration, and on this country. That very cancer is failed FAA Acting Administrator “Bobby” Sturgell himself, and the rogue dysfunctional federal agency known as the FAA. “Bobby” Sturgell must be ejected. The FAA must be repopulated with competent and honest federal officials. As Senators Lautenberg and Menendez observed in an April 10, 2008 letter to “Bobby” Sturgell:
“The FAA’s hands-off approach to airline oversight has allowed …deliberate violations…, shoddy maintenance, incomplete record-keeping, and complacent oversight practices to fester”… “Why were… potentially unsafe planes allowed to fly…?”
Instead of protecting our safety like they are supposed to do, the FAA, in continuing complicity with the airlines, threatens hero aviation inspector whistleblowers. The House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday April 3, 2008 exposed all of that in a 9-hour webcast, for all the world to see. As Congressman James Oberstar the Head of the House Transportation Committee observed, if last Thursday’s hearing “had been a grand jury proceeding, it would have resulted in indictments”.
While we find it unbelievable, a few Senators, and even possibly the President, continue to this day to support “Bobby” Sturgell as FAA Head. Quiet Rockland disagrees. We are proud Americans who believe in the integrity of the American system of government. We want national stability, national security, aviation safety, environmental justice, and aviation justice. We’re sick of our country’s aviation system being laughed at by other countries. We want to foster continued public pride in our government, and a continued belief that the system works - in the eyes of U.S. citizens, and in the eyes of the rest of the world. “Bobby” Sturgell’s removal as Acting FAA Head is integral to these goals.
Even if you assume arguendo that Mr. Sturgell did not himself personally make or sanction threats against aviation safety whistleblowers, the offensive activity occurred at a failed federal agency under his watch – as did all the other offensive FAA activity recently unearthed. The April 3 House hearing chronicled many other of “Bobby” Sturgell’s FAA failures. During that hearing we also learned that circa 2003 the FAA launched a “Partnership Program” wherein individuals spent months hand-delivering packets to airlines, happily announcing that airlines had become the “customers” and “clients” of the FAA. That’s flat wrong. WE THE PEOPLE are the customers of the FAA. The FAA is supposed to regulate the airlines. The FAA is not supposed to kiss the backsides of the airlines. As for “Bobby” Sturgell’s role and involvement in all of this perversion of justice and dereliction of federal duty, one only need note that “Bobby” Sturgell started work at the FAA in the very same year as the “Partnership Program” was launched – 2003. “Bobby” Sturgell is a private dancer for the very airline industry that callously and inhumanly threatens our safety. Never mind fox and henhouse. Just throw the bums out.
Quiet Rockland urges each Honorable U.S. Senator to further forestall any vote on “Bobby” Sturgell’s confirmation. Additionally, Quiet Rockland urges all Senators, and all Americans, to carefully consider the manifold reasons why any vote in support of “Bobby” Sturgell would be antithetical to the interests of this country and its citizens. What we want, is what is in the best interests of the American people – removal of “Bobby” Sturgell from office, NOW. The talent pool is deeper than this. There is more to leadership than rhapsodizing through one’s old aviator goggles. We have an ugly aviation safety crisis and scandal on our hands. Let’s wash our hands of it. Let’s wash our hands of “Bobby” Sturgell and his [f]ailed [a]viation [a]dministration. Quiet Rockland urges all Americans to Just Say No to “Bobby” Sturgell. Quiet Rockland urges all Americans to let all of our elected officials hear that, loud and clear. Enter, Sandman. The further case against Bobby Sturgell is posted at the following website:
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com
Respectfully submitted,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Quiet Rockland
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com