Major Overhaul of FAA Is Needed, Expert Tells CommitteeThe House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure under Rep. [James] Oberstar’s [D-MN] leadership has created a rare window of opportunity to reestablish a regulatory agency long misled and lost. The opportunity to set the standard of public service and aviation safety will impact both public safety and economic viability for the air carriers for the next decade and beyond.
Gabriel Bruno
Numerology and System SafetyWhy the FAA’s guidance for predictive risk assessmentsdoesn’t bear any resemblance to reality By Ira Rimson Read More...Sign up for notification of new articlesSyndicate
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Latest ArticlesCombating The Ladder of Airport Fire Fighting BureaucracyOnce again, the Federal aviation Administration (FAA) has demonstrated its bureaucratic incompetence during the recent American Airline aircraft inspection debacle (see Aviation Safety & Security Digest, ‘Agency Accuses Airline of Sloppy Maintenance While Sidestepping Its Own Oversight Shortcomings,’ homepage). This is what happens when the FAA permits the airlines to monitor their self-inspection and compliance process, and then they get caught with their pants down when they find that they haven’t done so, or have incorrectly complied. It’s tantamount to letting the fox watch the hen house.. Read More...Making Flying Safer, After the FactRecent regulatory iniatives by the FAA raise the question of how proactive for safety the agency really is:
* An emergency airworthiness directive for the Eclipse 500 airplane concerning the engine controls on an airplane that was type certificated less than two years ago prompt questions about that July 2006 certification.
* A generous amount of time is provided for inspection of all Boeing jetliners for a fuel feed problem which could cause loss of power for all engines.
* The hunt continues for sources of electrical arcing that could ignite explosive vapors in fuel tanks, well after the FAA mandated that manufacturers conduct a special safety review.
* After 50 years and numerous icing-related fatal accidents, a loophole allowing for planes to depart with "polished frost" is proposed to be closed.
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Aviation Safety &Security Digest
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Agency Accuses Airline of Sloppy Maintenance While Sidestepping Its Own Safety Oversight ShortcomingThe recent groundings of hundreds of airliners for inspections raises serious questions about federal oversight (see Aviation Safety & Security Digest, ‘Committee Vows to Legislate Changes to Strengthen Oversight of Airlines’). The perception given by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is that the agency is on top of safety issues and has acted with alacrity when that safety appeared threatened. What is not addressed is why it took so long for the FAA to rectify numerous long-standing safety issues.
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