Review of FAA’s Safety Oversight of Airlines and Use of Regulatory Partnership Programs

This report presents the interim results of the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) review of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) oversight of airlines’ regulatory partnership programs and its national program for risk based oversight, the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS). OIG initiated this review in response to a February 6, 2008, request from the Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Specifically, the Chairman requested that OIG determine whether FAA thoroughly investigated whistleblowers’ complaints regarding FAA’s oversight of Southwest Airlines (SWA). The whistleblower allegation focused on SWA’s failure to follow a critical FAA airworthiness directive (AD) and an FAA inspector’s role in allowing the air carrier to continue flying aircraft in violation of the AD. The FAA directive in this case required SWA to inspect the fuselages of its Boeing 737s for potential cracks that could lead to rapid decompression and fatal accidents. FAA issued this directive after an Aloha Airlines 737 lost a major portion of its hull while in flight at 24,000 feet in 1988, resulting in one fatality and multiple injuries. The Chairman also requested that OIG determine whether FAA took corrective actions in a timely manner. The objectives of OIG's initial review were to determine (1) the thoroughness of FAA’s investigation of the whistleblower allegations and (2) the type and timeliness of corrective actions taken by FAA in response to any inappropriate inspector actions. At the request of Congress, OIG continues to review FAA’s air carrier oversight processes to determine if there are areas in which FAA could strengthen its oversight.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/dot/files/pdfdocs/SWA_Report_Issued.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Department of Transportation

  Office of Inspector General, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Publication Date: 2008-6-30

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices;
• Pagination: 18p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airlines; Airworthiness; Aviation safety; Inspection; Oversight; Partnerships; Quality control; Regulation
• Identifier Terms: Southwest Airlines; U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01105099
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: AV-2008-057
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 24 2008 1:34PM