FAA strengthens safety supervision of airlines, puts forth 13 new safety guidelines

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new steps as well as 13 recommendations to enhance its supervision of aviation safety.

The move comes in the wake of an expert panel expressing concerns about continuing conflicts within the FAA over how forcefully to monitor airlines as well as deal with complaints of lack of compliance involving United States-based airlines in 2008.

New aviation safety guidelines from FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the United States. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the group under the name ‘Federal Aviation Agency’ and adopted its current name in 1967 when it became a part of the United States Department of Transportation. The Federal Aviation Administration is the single most influential government-run aviation agency in the world, with the European Aviation Safety Agency coming a close second.

The expert panel, an independent review team, also listed areas of weakness in the Federal Aviation Administration.

The expert panel, appointed by United States Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, conducted a top-to-bottom review of the safety operations of the Federal Aviation Administration over the summer of 2008.

Included in the review team’s recommendations are the creation of guidance by the end of 2008 to ensure that the FAA’s airworthiness directives are fully understood by employees of the FAA as well as by airlines, “more rigorous and systematic supervision of the FAA’s voluntary disclosure programme,” as well as safeguards against FAA personnel developing “overly cozy” relationships with the airlines.

In a controversial decision, the expert panel declined to recommend that the FAA periodically rotate its supervisory inspectors to ensure that they do not become “overly cozy” with airlines. The panel also decided against advising the FAA to set up an independent office charged with examining complaints raised by FAA’s inspectors.

The FAA said it would expand its use of data provided by the airline industry in order to determine safety risks and study if its inspectors are spending sufficient time physically inspecting aircraft.

Many of the 13 recommendations issued by the expert panel are connected to an incident in 2007 in which an FAA manager in Texas allowed Southwest Airlines, the low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, to fly jets that were overdue for structural safety checks.

The panel’s report also praised generously the FAA for having evolved risk-based approach to airline regulation.

Mary Peters, United States Transportation Secretary, however, said in a statement that there remained room for improvement even as the airline industry in the United States “continues to maintain one of the highest levels of safety worldwide.”

“The intent,” Mary Peters added, “is clear: make sure everyone understands that the only customer that matters in the end is the flying public.”

The US Transportation Secretary also issued a directive saying that the FAA should, within the next six months, develop and carry out a new training programme for safety managers and inspectors.