The government audit of safety programs that prompted some
airlines to ground jets last week has found
”
an extremely high compliance rate
”
with regulations, Federal Aviation Administration officials said
Thursday.
The government audit of safety programs that prompted some airlines to ground jets last week has found “an extremely high compliance rate” with regulations, Federal Aviation Administration officials said Thursday.
The FAA plans to announce full results of its audit Wednesday, the day before regulators are scheduled to appear before a congressional committee investigating the agency’s oversight of airline safety. In spite of hundreds of cancellations in recent days, the FAA said that the airlines’ programs for implementing safety rules are strong, said Lynn Tierney, the FAA’s assistant administrator for communications.
“Of the inspections that have been done thus far, less than 1 percent – a fraction of 1 percent – have been found to have been elevated to the level that you would call questions with compliance,” Ms. Tierney said. “That is an extremely high compliance rate.”
Even so, cancellations and delays have affected North Texas and rippled across the system for the past two days, with American Airlines cancelling 141 flights Thursday, after canceling about 300 the day before.
American was beset by questions about whether it correctly followed an airworthiness directive for its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 fleet. Airworthiness directives are legally enforceable safety rules issued by the FAA to address defects or safety risks on aircraft.
During the FAA’s audit, inspectors found that, in some cases, American had improperly applied ties on a sleeve that protected electrical wires from chafing and shorting.
Delta, which also has a large fleet of MD-80s, Wednesday said it would check its fleet for similar problems.
Both airlines took the planes out of service to perform inspections and modifications. Forty-two of the flights American canceled on Thursday were at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Tim Smith, an American spokesman, said the “overwhelming majority” of passengers would be accommodated on American flights, or on other airlines if necessary.
Two of Delta’s cancellations also involved D/FW. A spokesman did not offer details about how many of its aircraft required modification.
The FAA has said that questions about Delta’s and American’s compliance were technical, suggesting the carriers’ problems weren’t intentional nor compromised safety.
The inspections follow a federal investigation of Southwest Airlines that resulted in a $10.2 million federal fine. The FAA accused the carrier of continuing to fly jets that needed to be inspected for fuselage damage. Some of those jets were later found to have cracks.
“Dollars talk,” said G. Frederick Mirgle, chairman of aviation maintenance science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. “Nobody wants to end up with a $10 million fine for something they can correct by doing another inspection.”
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been investigating Southwest’s lapse, as well as problems with other carriers. The committee is looking into the way the FAA administers its so-called partnership programs, which allow airlines to self-disclose errors and mistakes without being penalized. The programs are designed to collect information from the self-disclosure reports that could prevent similar problems at other airlines.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., and the committee’s chairman, thinks the FAA has become too lax and has let airlines off the hook for egregious violations. Two inspectors in North Texas blew the whistle on problems at Southwest. The congressional committee credits its investigation with prodding the FAA to sanction Southwest.
“It looks like the FAA is in a rush to get everything cleared up, so they can sit in front of our hearing on April 3 and say, `everything is fixed. The program works,'” said Jim Berard, a committee spokesman.
