OVERSIGHT HEARING ON AVIATION SAFETY EMPHASIZES NEED FOR MORE INSPECTORS
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- Published: July 18, 2013
FAA Inspector Workforce Stretched Thin, Safety at Risk
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Subcommittee on Aviation, held a hearing on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety oversight. A major focus of the hearing, the outsourcing of maintenance work to both domestic and foreign repair stations, called attention to the critical need to increase the inspector workforce in order to oversee this work.
Following the hearing, Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS), the union that represents FAA inspectors, emphasized that the increasing reliance on outsourced maintenance work demands an adequate number of aviation safety inspectors. With many airlines facing dire financial circumstances, outsourcing maintenance to decrease costs has become commonplace. FAA airworthiness inspectors are charged with ensuring this outsourced maintenance is performed in accordance with airline, manufacturer and certificated repair station instructions and FAA regulations. Yet, as the outsourcing business explodes, the number of FAA inspectors continues to decrease.
“The FAA simply does not have the personnel to meet its own standards when it comes to inspection of outsourced maintenance work,” said Tom Brantley, PASS national president. “Cutting corners to save pennies cannot come at the cost of safety, and that is exactly what the FAA is doing when the agency refuses to hire more inspectors to meet growing demand.”
Members of the subcommittee and several key witnesses echoed PASS’s concerns and called on the FAA to concentrate on ensuring an adequate inspector workforce.
“Compounding the industry’s trend to outsource much of its significant maintenance work is the inability of the FAA to certify and closely monitor an ever increasing number of foreign repair stations,” said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.), ranking member on the subcommittee. “This is due mainly to a lack of resources. I am deeply concerned that the FAA is losing a number of its most senior safety inspectors and does not have the ability to replace them.”
Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth M. Mead urged the agency to “maintain a safety inspector workforce that is sufficient to achieve its mission of safety oversight….It is important that FAA not lose sight of the need to adequately staff its inspection workforce.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) testified before the subcommittee and stressed that the inspector workforce should be a focal point for the agency. “An immediate increase in FAA inspectors is necessary to safeguard the U.S. aviation industry,” said Robert Roach Jr., general vice president of transportation for IAM.
“It is encouraging that members of the industry and Congress are recognizing the critical need to increase the inspector workforce,” said Brantley. “Hopefully, this attention will be followed by action on the part of the agency to hire additional inspectors.”
PASS represents approximately 2,800 FAA aviation safety inspectors, who are responsible for inspecting certificated repair stations, both foreign and domestic, including contracted maintenance work. PASS continues to press for the review of the FAA inspector staffing shortage, which places the safety of today’s aviation industry at extreme risk.
Click here for more information on PASS’s position on oversight of contract maintenance www.passnational.org/Public/issues.shtml#Outsourced.
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PASS represents more than 11,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense who install, maintain, support and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment, inspect and oversee the commercial and general aviation industries, develop flight procedures and perform quality analyses of the aviation systems. For more information, visit the PASS website at www.passnational.org.