DALLAS — Six months after the debacle over safety inspections at Southwest Airlines, after which I concluded that the FAA had scapegoated Southwest with a massive penalty after it became clear that Congress would be scrutinizing FAA inspection practices and personnel. Southwest executives I spoke to emphasized that Southwest is in full compliance with FAA [...]
Posts Tagged ‘safety’
SWA and the FAA, six months later
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged faa, safety, southwest, Southwest and the FAA on October 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Aviation08: The Obama aviation plan
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, Aviation08, congress, delays, dot, faa, labor, politics, safety, security, small communities, tsa on September 8, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Welcome, new readers! For more blogging on aviation politics, click here.
First of all, big props to Obama and his campaign team for actually having a transportation agenda [PDF]. The McCain campaign devotes a whole section to manned space exploration but can’t spare a word for aviation. So, to Obama, an A for effort.
Now let’s dig [...]
FAA safety reform bill exposes agency’s institutional schizophrenia
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, dot, faa, regulation, safety, Southwest and the FAA on July 16, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Yesterday, Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and three cosponsors introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure “arms-length” safety regulation of airlines by the FAA. The legislation comes as a result of the inspection debacle that took place this spring. During hearings on the subject, Oberstar repeatedly criticized what he called a “cozy” relationship between the FAA and the airlines [...]
Air traffic control facility staffing: liveblogging the hearing
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, congress, dot, faa, labor, safety on June 11, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The House aviation subcommittee is holding a hearing today on air traffic control facility staffing, “including concerns about staffing alignment and training at such facilities.” Here is the subcommittee’s background paper. Here’s what happened today:
Panel I
Hank Krakowski, the COO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is the first witness. He first emphasizes the agency’s [...]
FAAilure of leadership
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, delays, faa, network airlines, safety, southwest, Southwest and the FAA, usa on April 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
As I’ve written before, the failure of the FAA in the Southwest Airlines case and elsewhere seems to stem from a personnel problem. The safety inspection chain of command at the agency ignored and abetted an inspector who was consistently neglecting policies and procedures. This is not an indictment of the FAA’s collaborative approach to [...]
FAA reassigns Stuckey
Posted in Daily Departures, tagged faa, safety, Southwest and the FAA on April 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
According to an AP report, the agency is reassigning Southwest Region Flight Standards Director Thomas Stuckey to an administrative position without safety oversight responsibilities.
Concluding thoughts on the aviation safety hearing
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, faa, regulation, safety, Southwest and the FAA on April 7, 2008 | 6 Comments »
On Thursday night I posted the narrative that emerged about the Southwest Airlines-FAA maintenance debacle. Now I’d like to post some of my observations and offer some policy lessons from the April 3 hearing. You should read the Thursday post before you look at this one.
The “collaborative” relationship between airlines and regulators doesn’t have to [...]
The FAA fails the safety test: here’s what happened
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, faa, regulation, safety, Southwest and the FAA on April 3, 2008 | 4 Comments »
There were systemic breakdowns in the FAA’s airline safety inspection program, key whistleblowers testified before Congress on April 3. One unaccountable inspector, enabled by a culture of relaxed standards, allowed Southwest Airlines (SWA) to violate FAA rules and airworthiness directives. FAA line staff, top agency officials, and SWA executives testified before the House Transportation and [...]
FAA whistleblowers expose accountability problems in safety inspections
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, faa, regulation, safety, Southwest and the FAA on April 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
WASHINGTON — In testimony today before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, several current and former FAA employees related their roles in the lapses in inspection of Southwest Airlines, how supervisors collaborated with the airline to minimize the punishments, and how a culture of lack of accountability was built up in the FAA’s southwest region.
More [...]
Liveblogging Randy Babbitt’s confirmation hearing
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, antitrust, congress, dot, faa, general aviation, labor, safety on May 19, 2009 | 6 Comments »
The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing today to review several nominations in its purview, including FAA administrator-designate J. Randolph Babbitt and DOT deputy secretary-designate John Porcari. Opening statements are going on now. Babbitt is, as you know, the former president of the Air Line Pilots Association and a pilot at Eastern. According to [...]
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