US FAA proposes fines against United Airlines, US Airways for violating safety norms

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed fines against two major US-based airlines – US Airways and United Airlines – for having flown their  planes “on hundreds of occasions” violating the FAA’s rules or other standards for airline safety.

The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking – for unrelated violations – a fine of $3.8 million from United Airlines and a fine of $5.4 million from US Airways.

United Airlines and US Airways both have issued separate statements “assuring” the public of their “commitment to safety.”

While the statement from United Airlines sought to explain that it “self-reported” the incident that resulted in the fine proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration and stressed that it has since taken measures to ensure that standards on safety are adhered to, US Airways blamed its problems on merging, in 2007, of the maintenance operations of US Airways and America West.

The violation of airline safety standards in the case of US Airways involved as many as 8 planes. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, US Airways operated these 8 planes on a total of 1,647 flights in the fall and winter of 2008 while they were in a “potentially unsafe condition.”

In all, 3 of the 8 planes of US Airways in question were flown while they were not in compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules called Airworthiness Directives. (The FAA issues Airworthiness Directives, or ADs, when it comes across a potentially unsafe condition on a particular type of aircraft, and when it wants the carrier concerned either to inspect its fleet or to do preventive maintenance.)

In a statement, the FAA said it had issued an Airworthiness Directive that required airlines to inspect the Airbus A320 planes for possible cracking of a part of the landing gear. However, US Airways operated 2 Airbus A320 planes on as many as 43 flights without complying with the inspection that the FAA had ordered.

Apart from this, US Airways operated an Embraer 190 plane on 19 flights without conducting an inspection to put a stop to a cargo door from opening during flight.

In the case of the remaining 5 planes, US Airways failed to adhere to its own maintenance procedures, the Federal Aviation Administration alleged.

The violation of safety standards by United Airlines involved only one plane – a Boeing 737. In this case, according to both United Airlines and the FAA, a pilot had noticed a low fuel-pressure indication while on a flight from Denver, Colorado, the United States, on April 28, 2008. Following this, the pilot shut down one of the engines and returned to the Denver International Airport.

The mechanics of United Airlines who examined the engine in question found that 2 shop-towels had been used to cover openings in the area of the oil sump, instead of using proper protective caps.

According to the FAA, the Boeing 737 aircraft of United Airlines had flown over 200 times in that “unsafe condition” – with the openings in the area of the oil sump covered with shop-towels – before the problem was detected.

An official of United Airlines said the carrier had reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration and also had taken a number of steps to avoid recurrence of such incidents.

The FAA has given both US Airways and United Airlines 30 days’ time to respond to its proposal to clamp the fines.