Word: faa
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...write in your book about attending an FAA workshop on surviving plane crashes. What were some of the most important tips that you can recall from that session...
...want to know what the exits are, what the equipment is. I want to know what's under my seat. I actually reach under the seat with my hands and touch to make sure that my life jacket is actually there. So the safety briefings are very important. The FAA has done research on safety briefings, and they find that the least informed people, those that don't pay attention to the safety briefings, are frequent fliers. They think they know all about flying and all about planes, so they get on a flight and pick up their Wall Street...
Between 1990 and 1996, my office issued 10 reports, all of them critical, on the FAA's inspection system--of aircraft operators, parts manufacturers, repair stations, designated mechanic examiners. Every investigation or audit was a battle, accomplished only after crafting strategies to outwit the FAA. My office made 70 recommendations to intensify FAA inspections. The NTSB weighed in too, pointing out that a 1988 crash that killed 12 people might not have happened if the FAA had been more meticulous in inspecting the airline and its pilots. Unfortunately, slipshod review of aircraft is the norm, not the exception...
...first months as Inspector General, I learned that my predecessors had made only occasional forays to review just how the FAA inspected parts manufacturers and suppliers. The FAA was satisfied with the procedures in place for monitoring parts makers and brokers. But I couldn't help noticing the reports that crossed my desk: allegations about fraudulent aircraft parts were more numerous than ever, aging aircraft fleets still needed replacement parts that their manufacturers no longer made, more and more parts makers were foreign operations, the number of parts brokers and distributors was increasing every year, and the price of parts...
...FAA got only a few hundred reports of bogus parts. Nevertheless, I knew each report could represent thousands of parts. The number of brokers, on the other hand, is unknown. The FAA says 2,000 to 5,000; some aviation-industry estimates put the number at 20,000. Nobody knows, because brokers are unlicensed, unregistered, untrained--and ungoverned by the FAA. They are the broken link in the FAA's regulatory chain. We found that bad brokers would simply close up shop, move to another building or town, and resume business under a new name...