Lawmakers Examine Commercial Airline Safety

June 10, 2009— -- Lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill are scrutinizing the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of commercial airlines on the heels of several high profile plane crashes that have raised concerns about travelers' safety.

In a statement prepared for the meeting, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called the February plane crash in Buffalo, N.Y., and last week's Air France crash over the Atlantic Ocean "chilling, horrific reminders that there is nothing more important in aviation than the safety of all passengers."

But the Transportation Department's inspector general told lawmakers today that the FAA's system to oversee carriers needs work.

"In preparation for this hearing, we have identified serious vulnerabilities in five critical FAA programs for oversight of the aviation industry," said Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel.

Those weaknesses in the FAA's oversight of the airlines include "risk-based inspections, repair stations, aging aircraft, disclosures of safety violations made through the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and whistleblower complaints," Scovel told the aviation subcommittee of Senate Commerce panel.

Scovel plans to release a report on those issues later this year.

Scovel also said the FAA's plan for regional air carrier oversight, by including it in its Air Transportation Oversight System known as ATOS, might not work.

"This is a completely new way of conducting oversight, and inspectors we interviewed stated that ATOS applies more to large carrier operations and needs to revised to fit the operations unique to smaller air carriers," Scovel said.

A total of 50 people died when Colgan Air flight 3407 went down in a regional jet just short of the Buffalo airport in February.

At its recent National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the accident, investigators honed in on the pilot and crew's training as well as issues of fatigue and possible cockpit errors.

Many pilots in turn said they'd seen it all before.

Just yesterday, Babbit and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that starting immediately pilot training at regional airlines will be scrutinized by FAA inspectors.

"I have no greater obligation than to ensure the safety of airline travelers in this country," LaHood said in a Tuesday statement.

The regional airlines voiced support Tuesday for the new emphasis on federal oversight of pilot training.

"Safety always has been and always will be our No. 1 priority," said Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen. "We support all steps DOT Secretary LaHood and FAA administrator Babbitt call for to make this happen."

"I would like to note that these issues are not relevant to regional airlines alone," NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker testified today. "They are pertinent to every airline operation, major air carriers as well as regional air carriers."

"We are a safe aviation country, but we should be now saying, 'Let's take another look, let's see where we need to be more stringent and have more oversight just to assure we are doing everything possible,'" Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said today.