Hill hears of FAA lapses

A half-dozen Federal Aviation Administration employees revealed lapses in airline inspections during congressional testimony yesterday, accusing agency managers of collaborating with airlines to cover up safety problems.

The charges prompted members of Congress to vow there will be fundamental changes in the way the FAA ensures the safety of airlines that operate in the U.S.

“Correcting the problem at the top has to be our primary concern,” said Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

A report from the Transportation Department inspector general yesterday echoed the testimony of the FAA employees, saying the agency “needs to make immediate and comprehensive changes to its air carrier oversight programs.”

It said dozens of airplanes were allowed to skip required inspections and fly with cracks in their fuselages.

The two FAA inspectors and four supervisors worked at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where they were assigned to check the safety of Southwest Airlines aircraft.

Some of the aircraft were 30 months overdue for inspections but were allowed to continue carrying passengers because an FAA manager decided to rely on reports from Southwest Airlines that they were safe, the inspectors said.

The FAA has proposed a $10.2 million fine against Southwest for operating aircraft that missed inspections. Southwest is accused of flying the aircraft even after the airline notified the FAA it had stopped flying them.

Southwest, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines and United Airlines have grounded hundreds of airplanes for inspection since the FAA announced it would audit them for safety compliance after cracks were found in the fuselages of four Southwest airplanes in mid-March.

Members of Congress said airline accident fatalities have declined about 60 percent in the past decade but only because of diligent safety monitoring.

The FAA employees who testified yesterday said they reported their concerns to Congress after growing frustrated by the FAA’s inaction when they pointed out inspection lapses.

Several of them said top managers threatened to fire them for being too aggressive in their complaints.

One of them, Bobby Boutris, an FAA inspector of Boeing 737-700 aircraft, said his life was threatened recently in an anonymous letter mailed to his home as he was preparing to testify before Congress.

He declined to give details, saying the FBI is investigating.

Much of his criticism fell on the “customer service initiative” the FAA started in 2003 to encourage voluntary compliance with safety regulations.

It allows “self-disclosure” of safety problems without penalty as long as they are fixed promptly.

In some cases, FAA managers relied on the airlines’ self-disclosure reports instead of ordering new inspections, the safety inspectors said.

“There is no accountability throughout the ranks in the FAA,” Mr. Boutris said.

The inspectors said the initiative encouraged them to think of airlines as their customers rather than adopting the regulatory role needed to ensure safety.

“I think we all know who the customer is,” said Douglas E. Peters, an FAA inspector of Boeing 757 aircraft. “It’s the person sitting in the seat.”

Career ambition by some FAA managers might be contributing to their willingness of overlook safety lapses, he told reporters after the hearing.

“Rumor has it that some inspectors were offered jobs at Southwest,” Mr. Peters said.

Among solutions discussed during the hearing were retraining inspectors to ensure they make more inspections by themselves rather than relying on data from other sources, a government hotline that would allow inspectors or airline employees to report safety lapses and regular rotation of FAA managers to other airports to avoid what one inspector called a “cozy relationship” with airlines.

Members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also questioned whether outsourcing of aircraft maintenance could lead to safety lapses because of a lack of FAA oversight in foreign countries.

Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Herbert D. Kelleher testified the airline has compiled a good safety record by continuously monitoring the operation of its aircraft.

Many of the concerns about fuselage cracks result from manufacturing issues at Boeing rather than lapses by the airline, he said.