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FAA Working to Improve Program Flaws in Inspection System Disturb Flight Safety Chief

By Alan Levin and Blake Morrison USA TODAY -- June 30, 2000

When federal aviation inspectors arrived at Alaska Airlines after a fatal crash Jan. 31, they found a troubling string of problems.

Maintenance workers were saying they were under pressure to put jets back into service too quickly. A federal criminal investigation was looking into allegations about how work was done on jets at the company's Oakland facility.

And Federal Aviation Administration inspectors discovered that the airline was having difficulty keeping tabs on whether it was accomplishing its required maintenance. The lapses were so severe that the FAA threatened to halt major repair work at the airline.

But one of the findings was nothing new: The FAA's regular maintenance inspection program failed to detect many of the problems.

In recent decades, the FAA's airline inspection programs came under repeated fire from crash investigators and federal auditors.

Criticism after the ValuJet crash in 1996 in the Florida Everglades was so sharp that the FAA completely revamped its maintenance inspection program.

But while that new program, called the Air Transport Oversight System, has gotten good marks for its intent, it has stumbled in practice, congressional investigators found last year.

The new inspection program was designed to give federal aviation regulators a better overall picture of an airline's operations. Instead of inspecting individual aircraft, government inspectors are now expected to monitor how an airline maintains its fleet by using sophisticated computer systems.

But last year's investigation by the General Accounting Office found that teams in the inspection program had received only two weeks of training and on some occasions received no training at all on the jets they were supposed to oversee.

The computer system that was a basis for the new program had run into severe problems, and turnover was so high in the program that many of the seasoned inspectors had left.

Nick Lacey, the FAA's director of flight safety, said Thursday that he was ''disturbed'' that the new program had failed to adequately keep track of issues at Alaska.

But Lacey said he retains his faith that the new way of overseeing airlines is superior.

Safety audits of nine other large airlines ordered by the FAA will determine whether the new inspection system is working and will allow the agency to improve the system, Lacey said.

''My goal is to accelerate and optimize'' the inspection system, Lacey said.

Alaska officials, who have taken numerous steps to improve maintenance in the wake of the FAA's actions, insist that none of the problems has compromised safety on a flight.

The cause of the crash on Jan. 31 off the California coast has not been determined. One mechanic who worked months earlier on the jet that crashed said he urged replacement of the jackscrew, a mechanism that apparently failed just before the jet plunged into the Pacific Ocean.

However, other mechanics checked the jackscrew and found it was within acceptable limits.

Released Thursday, the FAA's audit of Alaska Airlines' maintenance program found:

* The airline's director of maintenance position had been vacant since June 1998, a violation of federal regulations.

* Recurrent training for pilots repeatedly occurred too late. Last year's training records showed 220 pilots, or 18% of the airline's flight crews, received training later than was required.

* Two jets were put into service after major repair work without mechanics properly certifying that all work had been completed.

Lacey said the FAA was still considering whether to fine Alaska.

However, no jets were flown in an unsafe condition, he said. Because of steps the airline took to improve safety, including hiring more mechanics, the FAA opted not to shut down its major maintenance facilities.

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000630/2418577s.htm

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 30, 2000

Answers

The computer system that was a basis for
the new program had run into severe problems,
and turnover was so high in the program that
many of the seasoned inspectors had left.

Important statement to link possible Y2K connection
with the airline problems.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), June 30, 2000.