PASS Testimony Before Congress Highlights FAA Culture Gone Awry
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tom Brantley, national
president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS),
released the following statement regarding his upcoming testimony on April 3
before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on FAA oversight
of air carriers:
"The FAA has become so focused on working well with the airlines that it has
allowed its safety mission to suffer at times. FAA safety inspectors are on
the front lines of enforcing aviation safety standards. Yet, on far too many
occasions, the FAA has labeled its own safety inspectors as troublemakers for
simply reporting violations or allowed airline management to demand the
reassignment of an inspector trying to hold a carrier accountable.
"The FAA has not only promoted an internal culture where safety is given
second billing, but it has manipulated every aspect of the enforcement process
in order to encourage and maintain a positive relationship between the agency
and the airlines. Safety inspectors are on the frontline protecting this
country's aviation system and trust should no doubt be placed in their
professionalism and expertise. Punishing safety inspectors for discovering
violations or impeding them from making safety of the system their priority
should not be tolerated.
"Safety inspectors have been relegated to auditors who inspect more paperwork
than airplanes, the records obviously do not tell the whole story. Without
robust physical inspections, there is no way to know if the data is accurate
or complete since it is provided by the airlines. Given the importance of
safety to air travel, the FAA is in no position to rely solely on a
data-driven system. The process must be reintegrated as a combination of data
reporting and physical inspections. With nearly half of the inspector
workforce eligible to retire in the next five years, the FAA must address
severe understaffing to ensure that it can give proper oversight to the
industry. And FAA managers should be rotated on a regular basis to prevent the
cozy relationships that appear to be clouding judgment.
"While the announcement last week by FAA management to create a system to make
it harder to dismiss issues raised by inspectors is appropriate, it reveals an
FAA culture gone awry. Even the FAA recognizes that it is not listening to its
inspectors when it has to create new safeguards to do so."
A copy of PASS's testimony will be available on April 3 at
http://www.passnational.org.
PASS represents more than 11,000 employees of the Federal Aviation
Administration and the Department of Defense who install, maintain, support
and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment, inspect and
oversee the commercial and general aviation industries, develop flight
procedures and perform quality analyses of the aviation systems. For more
information, visit the PASS website at http://www.passnational.org.
Contact: Kori Blalock Keller
(202) 293-7277
SOURCE Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO
Kori Blalock Keller of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS),
AFL-CIO, +1-202-293-7277
