Panel says FAA needs to clean house

Panel says FAA needs to clean house

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration should “clean house from top to bottom” and has too cozy a relationship with the airlines, the head of a congressional committee investigating airline safety inspections said Friday.

The problems have led to the sort of lax rules that allowed Southwest Airlines Co. to fly at least 117 aircraft past mandatory inspection deadlines, said Rep. James Oberstar, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman.

Oberstar also said he believes similar violations may have occurred involving other airlines, but that those who have such evidence are afraid to come forward.

“Complacency has likely set in to the highest levels of FAA management,” the Minnesota Democrat said in a Capitol Hill news conference. “I think we have seen the pendulum swing away from vigorous enforcement of compliance toward a carrier-favorable, cozy relationship with the airlines.”

Oberstar said his committee has seen evidence that Southwest Airlines, with the complicity of the FAA, allowed its aircraft to fly in violation of federal aviation regulations.

Forty-seven of the Southwest Airlines aircraft were overdue for fuselage inspections and 70 were overdue for mandatory inspections of critical rudder control systems. Those numbers may overlap, he said. They flew at least 1,457 flights, he said.

Southwest has said it voluntarily disclosed its maintenance violations, but Oberstar said the law requires that planes be grounded until they are in compliance. The Southwest planes continued to fly with full knowledge of an FAA supervisor, Oberstar said.