WASHINGTON -- Suspension of ValuJet operations yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration, the history of FAA safety oversight of that airline, and the announced reorganization of the FAA's safety operations today, do not diminish the need for further reform of the agency's ability to coordinate aviation safety, according to Rep. James L. Oberstar, Ranking Democratic Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Oberstar made his comments following a news conference held this afternoon by US Department of Transportation Secretary Federico Pe¤a and FAA Administrator David Hinson.

"The ValuJet tragedy on May 11th has revealed more than mere deficiencies in that carrier's operations. That devastating crash in Florida killed 110 good people. We cannot bring them back. But may that crash now begin to put to rest the institutional resistance within some quarters of the FAA which shepherded the initial nine-month investigation of ValuJet into what can only be called an ignorance of the obvious. And the obvious has as much to do with ValuJet's operations as it does the FAA's operations," Oberstar said.

"Invaluable, time-sensitive safety information has often remained locked away in fiefdoms within the FAA, sitting on someone's desk. Only an intense investigation, such as the one directed at ValuJet within the last 5 weeks, seems capable of ferreting out that information, and the flaws within the FAA. That's a wholly intolerable situation," Oberstar asserted.

"Unfortunately, this lesson and recognition comes today at the expense of the single professional within the FAA who has labored longest to improve aviation safety throughout the toughest and most nonsensical whims of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Tony Broderick, the FAA's Associate Administrator for Regulation and Certification, has continued to do an outstanding job, but he has been felled victim to the system he inherited," Oberstar continued.

"For 20 years, Tony Broderick has pushed against a grain which would have made no reforms in duty-time regulations, or de-icing standards, or flammability and crash survivability standards. He has helped to make air travel safer, and must be congratulated for all those efforts. So if there is to be a reorganization of the FAA and its priorities, then I hope and expect that this reinvigorated mandate for safety will include 20 Tony Brodericks and an institutional desire to put safety first and safety delays last," Oberstar concluded.