FAA considers tighter scrutiny of airlines

Oversight of Alaska Air caused concern

Saturday, June 17, 2000
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF and NEWS SERVICES

The Federal Aviation Administration may change the way it monitors safety at the nation’s airlines after audits at Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc. showed potential weaknesses in the agency’s oversight.

The agency is preparing to announce next week whether it plans to take the dramatic step of suspending Alaska Airlines’ authority to perform heavy maintenance, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said yesterday.

That move could force the carrier to park planes as they come due for heavy maintenance.

As Alaska awaits the FAA’s judgment, the broader changes could spark increased near-term scrutiny and audits for other U.S. airlines, Garvey said. She didn’t provide specifics of changes her agency is considering.

“I am not opposed to the audit of airlines because I think it is good to monitor ourselves as a precaution,” Garvey said. “With these audits we can make improvements to our training, oversight and maintenance systems. . . . We may, (although) I’m not sure we will.”

The FAA itself is coming under some scrutiny.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer first reported in April that federal agents investigating the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 in January and the airline’s maintenance operations are also examining the FAA’s oversight of the carrier.

The FBI’s preliminary inquiry into the FAA was undertaken to determine if a formal criminal investigation is necessary, federal criminal justice sources said.

Agents with the FBI and the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General have been interviewing current and former FAA inspectors and supervisors along with Alaska Airlines personnel in the course of conducting the inquiry into the airline, the sources said.

One high-ranking criminal justice source told the P-I that the question facing prosecutors and agents “is how broad is (the investigation) going to be.”

A criminal investigation of the FAA would focus on whether Alaska encouraged criminally improper maintenance practices that were either sanctioned or ignored by the FAA.

The P-I reported last year that several FAA inspectors in the agency’s Flight Standards Division office in Renton say they had been pressured by superiors to take it easy on Alaska and were punished when they tried to strictly enforce federal regulations.

One Alaska mechanic working at the airline’s Sea-Tac hangar told the P-I that a San Francisco-based FBI agent questioned him a few weeks ago about the FAA and its relationship with Alaska.

“I told them, ‘The most I know of the FAA is they don’t come around very much,’” said the mechanic, who recounted the interview on condition he not be named.

The newspaper last year found many instances where the FAA appeared to have given a higher priority to maintaining a cordial relationship with the airline and operators of unrelated aircraft repair facilities than to imposing tough penalties for regulatory violations.

Some federal inspectors assigned to Alaska Airlines said they were penalized by supervisors when they were strict in enforcing federal regulations. Inspectors have been disciplined and moved to other jobs after airline managers or pilots campaigned against them.

Asked to comment on reports that local FAA inspectors, who spend all their time working with a particular airline, might get too close to the people there, Garvey defended the professionalism of her staff.

But, she added, she has begun rotating inspectors at an airline through various aspects of that carrier’s work and may move inspectors to other carriers for 60- to 90-day visits to bring in “fresh eyes.”

Regularly moving inspectors around the country, however, would be very expensive, she said.

The crash that sparked the Alaska FAA audit was Flight 261, which plunged into the ocean Jan. 31 about 20 miles northwest of Los Angeles International Airport after reporting trouble with its stabilizer trim. The reason for the crash is still unknown.

Garvey said part of the investigation included an internal audit of Alaska Airlines’ flight and maintenance systems by the FAA.

“All the facts are not yet in from the crash, so there is not a need to jump to any conclusions,” Garvey said, “But we have serious questions to ask ourselves, and this internal audit may be a basis for a change.”

She said she received a full report on June 9 from Alaska on why the agency shouldn’t suspend the airline’s ability to do heavy maintenance on their aircraft.

Alaska officials have said they expect to be able to resolve the FAA’s questions. They also say the carrier is close to wrapping up its own report. The carrier commissioned a panel of 13 safety professionals to examine its safety operations, and it could release the report in the next two weeks, according to Greg Witter, a spokesman for the company.

“It is our belief that we will be able to address all of the FAA’s concerns before any suspension of our authority to do heavy maintenance occurs,” Alaska Airlines President Bill Ayer said in a statement posted on the company’s Web site.