U.S. to more closely examine air safety

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Friday it will more closely examine airline safety and assigned a panel of outside experts to gauge the effectiveness of Federal Aviation Administration oversight.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a news conference her agency "must do more" to respond to recent flight disruptions affecting more than 300,000 travelers that were related to aircraft inspection lapses at big airlines.

"While the events of the last few weeks have been challenging, they have raised good questions," Peters said.

The FAA has been under fire in Congress and from the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General for its oversight of Southwest Airlines Co and other carriers.

Lawmakers and the inspector general, prompted by agency whistle-blowers, have asserted senior FAA inspectors and senior maintenance personnel at Southwest had a cozy relationship that led to lapses in compliance with aircraft inspection orders.

Southwest grounded dozens of older model Boeing Co 737s and canceled flights in March as a result of the controversy. Prompted by problems at Southwest and congressional pressure to respond, the FAA launched an industrywide review of compliance with its safety directives.

That audit led to grounded planes and canceled flights over recent weeks at several airlines. The most severe problems were at American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp, where 300 MD-80s were grounded and more than 3,000 flights canceled last week.

Peters wants separate reports from American, the No. 1 airline, and the FAA, within two weeks on the disruptions.

American twice failed to satisfy FAA requirements for inspecting and installing certain wiring in MD-80s, regulators said. The FAA denied a request by an American for an alternative to grounding the planes, company executives have said.

Peters also announced the FAA would more closely examine airline inspection practices, and any alerts about overdue checks would be routed directly to senior officials in Washington. Currently, any notice of lapsed inspections is handled by regional FAA officials.

After missed inspections for fuselage cracks on Southwest jets were revealed in March, the inspector general's office said FAA had for years failed to verify whether the carrier was complying with its safety orders.

Although the Transportation Department is cracking down on airlines and the FAA, carriers will still be permitted to self-report compliance with FAA orders.

Peters also said a special committee of outside aviation and safety experts would review FAA oversight and recommend any changes.

U.S. Sen. John Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's subcommittee on aviation, said the measures announced by Peters were "long overdue recognition" of gaps in airline compliance and FAA oversight.

"More must be done to get the FAA's house in order," Rockefeller said.

(Editing by Tim Dobbyn