AVIATION SAFETY: FAA GENERALLY AGREES WITH BUT IS SLOW IN IMPLEMENTING SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS

The General Accounting Office (GAO) was requested to determine the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) responsiveness to recommendations from GAO, the Office of Inspector General, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of FAA's activities and functions and at improving aviation safety. Specifically, this report focuses on two questions: What has FAA's overall record been in responding to, agreeing with, and implementing significant recommendations concerning aviation safety made by GAO and the Office of Inspector General from 1990 through 1994, as well as recommendations made by NTSB or added to NTSB's "Most Wanted" lists of safety recommendations from 1990 through 1994? To what extent have GAO's specific recommendations in the areas of aircraft certification, airline inspections, and oversight of foreign carriers and NTSB's recommendations concerning safety on runways been fully implemented? Briefly, GAO found the following: FAA generally concurred with the recommendations made by GAO, the Office of Inspector General, and NTSB and had implemented the majority (64%) of them as of October 1995. For the 18 specific recommendations on which GAO conducted detailed field work, FAA has taken actions on or had actions in process on 17 of them to improve its aircraft certification process, its airline inspections, its oversight of foreign carriers, and the safety of airport runways. However, GAO found that the status shown in the tracking systems for some of NTSB's recommendations did not reflect the actual status of on-the-ground actions.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.21949/1403138
• 
• Record URL:
  • http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?recflag=&rptno=RCED-96-193
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12746
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Report to the Honorable Collin C. Peterson, House of Representatives.
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. General Accounting Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Publication Date: 1996-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 59 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation safety; Delays; Implementation; Problem identification; Recommendations; Traffic delays
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00734625
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GAO/RCED-96-193
• Files: NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 20 1997 12:00AM