Congress to FAA: Straighten Up and Fly Right
Lawmakers slam FAA for not being proactive on airline safety
April 3, 2008— -- Protecting passengers has taken a back seat to protecting airlines at the Federal Aviation Administration, according to former airline inspectors, lawmakers and industry experts who gathered Thursday on Capitol Hill.
The FAA faced fire from a congressional panel as whistleblowers said the FAA's close relationship with the airlines it regulates has compromised inspection and safety practices.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., said the FAA's recent record on airline inspections contains "the most egregious lapses of safety I've seen in 23 years."
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"The FAA would have us believe that what took place was an isolated incident and has been contained," Oberstar said. "In fact, the testimony we have heard substantiates that clearly this is not an isolated aberration attributable to a rogue individual, but rather a systematic breakdown of the safety oversight role of the FAA."
The FAA has been heavily scrutinized since it was revealed that Southwest Airlines flew planes without the required safety checks, even though an FAA inspector knew about the lapses.
"I take responsibility for what happened in my organization and I will take what I learned and correct that," said Nicholas Sabatini, FAA's associate administrator for aviaton safety.
On Thursday, Bobby Boutris, one of the whistleblowers in the Southwest incident, told lawmakers that he thinks the airline intentionally hired a former FAA employee because the hire had a close relationship with the FAA supervisor assigned to monitor the carrier. Oberstar said that supervisor, who did not appear at today's hearing, is still an FAA employee making over $100,000 a year, though he has been reassigned from Southwest to American Airlines.
"I'm here to report that more than one inspector, along with FAA management, have been looking the other way for years," Boutris said.
FAA Says Airline Audit Shows Safety Comes First
But the FAA insisted this week that it is putting safety first - and released data Wednesday to prove it.
Results of a sweeping FAA audit launched after the Southwest incident found that 99 percent of airlines were in compliance with required maintenance procedures.
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