Transportation official assails FAA's oversight

Agency's safety officer apologizes

WASHINGTON - US aviation regulators' weaknesses extend beyond their failure to spot Southwest Airlines Co.'s missed inspections, showing the need for a sweeping air-safety overhaul, a House panel was told.

Southwest's lapses "are symptomatic of much deeper problems" at the Federal Aviation Administration, Calvin Scovel, the Transportation Department's inspector general, testified in Washington yesterday. "FAA relies too heavily on self-disclosures and promotes a pattern of excessive leniency at the expense of effective oversight and appropriate enforcement."

The FAA's chief safety officer, Nick Sabatini, apologized to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee "for FAA's failures in this situation."

The daylong hearing gave more ammunition to lawmakers pressing for FAA changes in the wake of airline maintenance breakdowns. The FAA's proposed $10.2 million fine against Southwest last month for flying jets after missing inspections thrust its industry oversight into the political spotlight.

"FAA needs to clean house from the top down," committee chairman James Oberstar said.

Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, said his panel's investigation "raises serious questions about whether higher officials in FAA are carrying out their safety responsibilities for the entire industry."

Witnesses reported what they saw as breakdowns at other carriers. A retired FAA inspector who oversaw FedEx Corp. said he was told by his supervisor not to continue a probe into possible rules violations by the company and a pilot, William McNease said in written testimony.

Sabatini, the FAA's associate administrator for safety, told the panel: "This is my workforce. I am ultimately responsible for their actions."

The agency should rotate inspectors who oversee individual airlines to ensure objective oversight and verify that carriers take action, Scovel said.