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...FAA has been ratcheting up pressure on airlines since March, when it launched "phase one" of a probe that required its inspectors to make sure each carrier was complying with 10 randomly chosen "airworthiness directives," the agency's written safety bulletins. (About 200 are issued annually.) The FAA followed that with what it calls "phase two," where its inspectors are reviewing 10% of all airworthiness directives per fleet to determine compliance. Initial results show the airlines have been complying with about 99% of the directives. But that remaining 1% was enough to cause hundreds of flight cancellations...
...While the FAA is relatively optimistic about the summer travel season, there may be more groundings to come in the next couple of months. "I don't have a crystal ball, but we would make the assumption that the airlines have been looking very closely at their AD compliance" following the crackdown, says FAA spokeswoman Allison Duqette. "But there's no way for me to really predict what is going to happen." The two-phase review didn't start with the most challenging ADs, which means that the chance of more trouble for the airlines remains the same until...
...Both Scott Bloch and Rep. James Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee, are highly critical of the way the FAA has been overseeing the nation's airlines. Asked Monday night if the nation's air travelers have endured the worst in the latest round of groundings, Oberstar snapped: "We'll be through the worst of it when they take their customer service initiative directive and tear it up, shred it, and establish a new mind-set that is aviation safety-compliant. What they're doing now is going through the mechanics of what they should have...
...also believes the FAA isn't ensuring sufficient maintenance is being done during the current tough economic times. "In the '70s, '80s and early '90s when aviation went through severe economic downturns - that either were, or just short of, recession - the FAA stood vigilant to make sure that the airlines were investing as much in maintenance in the hard times as they did in the good times," Oberstar says. "I don't think there is that attitude of vigilance now within the FAA...
...Duquette takes issue with those allegations. She points out that airline travel has become much safer as the FAA and airlines have worked more as partners since the deadly Valujet crash in 1996. "We've had a very concerted effort for probably the past 7 to 10 years using data to identify risk in the system well before accidents happen," Duquette says. "That's what has helped reduce our accident rate over the years - getting information from the industry, from the airlines about where potential problems may crop...