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« Spitzer's E-Escort Plight Shows Workings of Prostitution 2.0 | Main
| Top Spy Opposes House Spying Bill, Thinks Spying Truth Commission
Redundant »
FAA and Southwest Airlines Accused of Falsifying Safety Reports
===============================================================
By Kim Zetter EmailMarch 11, 2008 | 7:33:16 PMCategories: Cover-Ups,
Cybersecurity, Glitches and Bugs
Southwest
The Federal Aviation Administration and Southwest Airlines are being
accused of falsifying a safety report that provided assurances that
the airline had met compliance rules for safety inspections of its
jets, according to documents released today by a U.S. House Committee
that is investigating claims made by two FAA whistleblowers.
Information in the document cites cronyism as the cause of the
falsification and the FAA's failure to properly do its job in
conducting oversight of Southwest and other airlines.
This comes on the tail of news released two weeks ago that the FAA
also allowed substandard parts that are critical to the safety of
commercial and military planes to enter the aviation supply chain
because it failed to provide proper oversight of the parts suppliers.
All of this, of course, provides new context for the story published
in January about safety concerns over Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner
aircraft and the FAA's ability to assure that the plane's
communication system won't be vulnerable to hackers.
But, turning back to the Southwest issue, last week, the FAA announced
that it was fining Southwest Airlines $10.2 million for safety
violations. According to the FAA's findings, the airline had flown
nearly four dozen jets on more than 59,000 flights before it realized
that it hadn't conducted required safety inspections on the planes.
Then, even after the airline became aware that it hadn't conducted
inspections, it continued to fly 38 Boeing jets on a total of 1,451
flights without checking the planes.
When the airline finally got around to inspecting the planes, it found
cracks in half a dozen of them -- including one crack that was nearly
four inches long. As the Dallas Morning News points out, a similar
fracture caused an Aloha Airlines jet to rip apart in 1988.
In March 2007, Southwest notified the FAA that it had failed to
conduct inspections and said that it had stopped flying the planes in
question. In truth, Southwest continued to fly 38 of the planes for
another week.
So last week the FAA, showing that it takes its oversight function
seriously, announced the fine against Southwest Airlines, which is
reportedly the largest fine that the FAA has ever levied on an
airline.
But now it seems that the FAA, or at least some FAA supervisors, may
have been complicit in Southwest's safety lapses.
According to two FAA whistleblowers, a couple of colleagues who were
responsible for overseeing Southwest failed to act on information that
Southwest hadn't conducted safety inspections. The whistleblowers also
say the FAA failed to act on their concerns about the FAA employees
until after the whistleblowers approached a federal agency about these
concerns and that an internal FAA investigation of the issue was
leaked to Southwest.
The whistleblowers say the problems stem from a cozy relationship that
developed between the FAA and Southwest after a former FAA inspector
went to work for the airline.
The FAA has placed three employees on administrative leave while it
investigates the allegations.
In the meantime, someone leaked a report from the inspector general's
office for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Project on
Government Oversight published the report last week.
Among the inspector general's findings:
* "Manufacturers were not verifying that their suppliers were
providing effective oversight of the sub-tier suppliers they used
to produce parts. This is a critical safety issue, as demonstrated
by four engine failures that occurred in FY 2003 due to faulty
speed sensors on fuel pumps obtained from a supplier. Three of the
engine failures occurred on the ground and one occurred in flight.
The part failures were traced to unapproved design changes made by
a sub-tier supplier. In all, 152 parts were manufactured in the
suspect population."
* "Effective oversight of suppliers is essential to ensure that
substandard parts do not enter the aviation supply chain. For
example, in February 2003, 1 supplier released approximately 5,000
parts that were not manufactured properly for use on landing gear
for large commercial passenger aircraft. At least one of these
landing gear parts failed while in service. While FAA became aware
of this large-scale breakdown at this supplier in 2003, it has not
performed a supplier audit at this facility in the last 4 years."
* "One supplier allowed new, untrained employees to manufacture
several components. We witnessed one new employee improperly
inspecting a product. A later review of his training record showed
that he had not received any formal training in the proper
inspection method. This was the same supplier mentioned previously
that used a piece of paper as a measuring device for an oil and
fuel pressure transmitter."
Photo: Southwest Airlines
See also:
* Boeing's New 787 May Be Vulnerable to Hacker Attack
* FAA Responds to Boeing Security Story
* Boeing Employee Fired for Discussing Computer Security Problems
at Company
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I am getting ready to fly SW with my two young children. How do I know
they are safe now?! Why is this just now coming to the consumer's
attention?
Posted by: | Mar 11, 2008 5:05:29 PM
If it pertains to gov't mistakes then of course they aren't going to
tell the general public right away.
Posted by: Airline Employee | Mar 11, 2008 5:53:31 PM
The FAA's priority should definitely be our safety.
Posted by: Joe | Apr 4, 2008 2:56:44 PM
Southwest Airlines was inspecting 44 planes Wednesday after an
"ambiguity related to required testing" was found during a review of
records, the airline said.
Earlier this week, Southwest placed three employees on administrative
leave and began conducting an internal investigation into the
allegations that it flew planes without proper inspections.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which initiated
an investigation months ago, issued a statement on Southwest's
decision.
-------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------
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Posted by: kalingaraj | Apr 11, 2008 8:13:12 AM
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