Word: faa
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...FAA had properly regulated ValuJet, its rapid growth might not have led to disaster. But that February in 1996, all that seemed clear to me was that the FAA simply did not know what to do with ValuJet. The airline's safety record had deteriorated almost in direct proportion to its growth. ValuJet pilots made 15 emergency landings in 1994 and were forced down 57 times in 1995. (I didn't know it yet, but that record would be surpassed within months with 59 emergency landings in the first part of 1996. From February through May that year, ValuJet would...
...probed, I learned that FAA inspectors had looked at ValuJet planes nearly 5,000 times in the three years it had been flying yet had never reported any significant problems or concerns. What are the odds of that...
Schiavo told her staff that their office had to do something about the FAA's oversight of ValuJet...
...next day deputy assistant inspector general Larry Weintrob and two other officials from my office walked into the Atlanta office of the FAA. There was only one major question: What is the FAA doing about ValuJet? Weintrob pressed for details about the recent spate of accidents. The reply stunned him. Confused, the FAA inspectors asked, What spate? The inspectors admitted they didn't know how many accidents there had been. Taken aback, Weintrob and his team laid out details: In its short life, Valujet had had more than its share of accidents and mishaps. Its planes repeatedly overshot runways...
Some individual ValuJet planes had chronic problems. It would not have been difficult for inspectors [in the Atlanta FAA office] to go over ValuJet records and trace these persistent breakdowns. Instead, the Atlanta inspectors seemed unimpressed with the summary [of problems compiled by Weintrob]. The number of accidents and incidents was not "disproportionate," they said. There was no common link between them. The FAA had no special plans for ValuJet...