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Klobuchar and Snowe Announce Measure to Toughen Airline Inspections Rules

Bill Will Close Revolving Door Between Airlines and the FAA

June 5, 2009

Washington, D.C. – As part of their efforts to strengthen and improve aviation safety in America, U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) today announced the Aviation Inspection Safety Act, bipartisan legislation to toughen airline safety rules and bring an end to the cozy relationship that has developed between airlines and some federal regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“This bill puts the safety of passengers first.  Last year we saw evidence of a revolving door between the FAA and the airlines, and of airlines gaming the system to learn when their inspections will occur,’’ Klobuchar said. “We need to be clear: It is the American public that is the customer of the FAA, and not the airlines.”

“The FAA’s overarching role is to serve as a protector of the public trust; not as a public relations and management tool for the commercial airlines,” said Senator Snowe, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over this issue.  “By codifying our safety expectations into law, this legislation will hold anyone who tries to undermine the integrity of the safety process accountable.  The flying public, not the airlines, is the primary responsibility of the FAA and it is vital it return to its core mission: safety.”  
 
Last year, FAA inspectors disclosed that Southwest Airlines had continued flying airplanes even though critical safety checks involving cracks in aircraft fuselages had not been performed on approximately 50 jets. That same year, American Airlines cancelled nearly 2,000 flights in order to catch up on inspections of aircraft wiring – inspections that should have been performed previously under its agreement with the FAA. The Aviation Inspection Safety Act would strengthen and improve airline safety by:

-  Modify the FAA’s Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program to require that FAA inspectors verify that carriers have actually implemented solutions to the safety problems they disclose to the agency.

-  Require the FAA to establish a national review team of experienced FAA inspectors to conduct periodic, unannounced audits of FAA air carrier inspection facilities to make sure that aircraft inspections are carried out in a rigorous and timely fashion.

- Establish a cooling-off period so that supervisory FAA inspectors who leave government service cannot immediately go to work for an airline they used to inspect.

- Establish a more rigorous national tracking system so the FAA can make sure that inspections and airline corrective actions are accomplished on schedule.
 

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