Posted on: Thursday, June 9, 2005
Report finds financial chaos at airlines may be affecting safety
By Alan Levin
USA Today
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration needs to tighten oversight of the nation's financially strapped airlines, which are restructuring so quickly that regulators can't keep up with threats to safety, a government watchdog report said yesterday.
The Transportation Department's inspector general stopped short of saying passengers were at greater risk. The report pointed to recent incidents that suggest the financial chaos hitting the airline industry may be taking its toll.
For instance, the report refers to an increase in minor accidents on the ground involving jets operated by an undisclosed airline seeking bankruptcy protection. In one of those incidents, a jet struck another while taxiing, the report said. No one was injured, but the collision could have caused deaths, the report says.
The report said problems at another airline in the midst of bankruptcy were partly the result of "the prolonged psychological stress and fatigue" brought on by pilots dealing with large pay cuts.
Despite such issues, the inspector general's investigators found that many planned inspections were not completed by the FAA and that the agency sometimes reacted slowly to danger signs at several carriers.
The FAA reacted angrily to the report. Spokesman Greg Martin said it "vastly underestimates" the advances the agency has made over the past decade.
Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for safety, said the agency has tried for years to adapt more quickly to changes in the airline industry. Its inspectors use computer data to track troubling trends, and special teams keep an eye on financially troubled carriers, Gilligan said.
The airline industry is in its safest period in history. There have been no fatal crashes of a large jet in 3ý years.
Airlines have changed at an unprecedented pace during the same period. They have laid off more than 20,000 pilots and mechanics from 2001 through 2003. Many carriers turned to other companies to maintain their jets. At the same time, startup carriers such as JetBlue have grown rapidly.
Investigators reviewed FAA oversight at five traditional large airlines and five low-cost carriers. Three have sought bankruptcy protection, and some are losing money, while others are growing rapidly.
"We found problems in key areas," said the report by Inspector General Kenneth Mead.
According to the report:
• An audit found that 26 percent of inspections at the five large airlines studied were not completed. The majority of those inspections were in areas identified as high priority by the FAA. • Fewer than one of 10 inspections occurred at night, when airlines perform 90 percent of maintenance. • Even though most airlines are contracting out more maintenance to save money, the FAA's oversight of independent maintenance facilities has lagged. • FAA inspectors at five of the 10 airlines studied said they were reluctant to highlight risks because it could create too much work.
