The Grounding Of Criquet Raises Industry Fears About FAA Attitude Towards LSA

ANN RealTime Update, 09.08.11, 2111 ET: ANN has concluded a brief interview with Criquet Aviation/U-Fly-It's Dennis Carley about the recent actions undertaken by the FAA with regards to the FI 156 Storch program. Despite rumors, Carley says that Criquet's audit was started with a request from the FAA to come down and participate in the audit, and that they did not volunteer for this.

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The actual audit took place in mid-July and while the FAA staffers involved noted some discrepancies with various Compliance standards, at no time was there any hint that such drastic actions (the 'grounding" of the company) were underway or contemplated. They have finally received some data from the FAA as to the causes for their decisions and according to Carley, the main heartburn seems to rest on paperwork, documentation and procedural issues. As a result; he is unsure (based on the report he's privy to now) where a safety of flight issue exists that would warrant such serious consequences. Further; the detailed report the company received came AFTER the FAA published the memo grounding Criquet. Some dialogue has taken place with the FAA and with the Colombian parent company that undertakes most of the work of aircraft manufacture before the partial kits are shipped to the USA for completion -- Carley sees "nothing that can't be dealt with" fairly quickly and says that the FAA has promised to address their responses when rendered. Carley has more than a few questions about the process... especially in regards to the Two-Month delay between the audit and the grounding order... and why it took that long if the discrepancies were serious enough to demand such action.

He also seems a mite underwhelmed with the fact that there wasn't any real dialogue between them and the FAA between the time of the audit and the grounding order that could have allowed him to prepare the way for a faster response -- and not be caught by surprise. Overall, Carley's remarks raise even more questions than we had before the interview... and so far, the FAA has indicated that they are unwilling to talk about the matter. Color us concerned, and growing more so the more we look into this... -- Jim Campbell, ANN Editor-In-Chief

ANN RealTime Update, 09.08.11, 1121 ET: The FAA has refused further comment on this story and our attempts to interview staffers from AIR-200 have been politely turned away. Questions about the specifics of the grounding order and the reasons for its imposition remain unanswered.

Original Report: ANN reported the first known 'grounding' of an LSA manufacturer, by the FAA, last week when a memo produced by the FAA's AIR-200 was forwarded to us shortly after it was prepared.

The August 30th Memo sent to "All Manufacturing Inspection Offices, All Manufacturing District/Satellite Offices, All Certificate Management Offices/Units, All Flight Standards Divisions, All Flight Standards District Offices, and all Aircraft Registration Branch AFS-750 (with an additional notation recommending the memo's dissemination to "appropriate designees"), Terry Allen, the Acting Manager, Production and Airworthiness, for AIR-200. Allen appeared to many to be 'making good' on the FAA's promise/threat (issued last year after touring LSA facilities throughout the nation) to step up the surveillance and involvement in the LSA industry.

Using a "prototype LSA Audit Program", the FAA inspected Criquet Aviation USA, Inc., the manufacturers of the Storch FI-156 LSA. The result of this July 13 th audit, one of the first of its kind, was the rescinding of Criquet Aviation's ability to offer products with Special Flight Permits, S-LSA or E-LSA airworthiness certificates. In other words... grounded.

The Memo states that, "This memorandum prohibits the issuance of special flight permits, special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) and experimental light-sport aircraft (E-LSA) airworthiness certificates to all Storch FI-156 airplanes manufactured by Criquet Aviation USA, Inc.

"On July 13th 2011 , the Production and Airworthiness Division, AIR-200, conducted a prototype of a national light-sport aircraft audit program at U-Fly-It, LSA, LLC. The prototype audit results indicated that U-Fly-It LSA and Criquet Aviation USA were unable to demonstrate that the current manufacturing and re-assembly system for aircraft model Storch FI-156 is in compliance with all FAA accepted consensus standards and regulatory requirements. The FAA has determined that a potential safety of flight issue may exist with Storch FI-156 models manufactured by Criquet Aviation USA, Inc.

"Effectively immediately, no Special Flight Permits, S-LSA or E-LSA airworthiness certificates will be issued to any Storch FI-156 airplane manufactured by Criquet Aviation USA, Inc., until further notice from AIR-200."

ANN immediately called the FAA (last week) in order to get additional info about the matter... and in particular, what issues were found to be serious enough to shut Criquet down. Late Wednesday, ANN received the following response from the FAA's Les Dorr...

"The FAA looked at several manufacturers, including Criquet, because of the findings from the previous LSA Manufacturers Assessment Project. Our assessments have shown some LSA manufacturers are not adhering to the consensus standards and federal regulations. As a result, the FAA is developing an oversight program and has begun to prototype it. Criquet Aviation's aircraft was part of the prototype effort. The aircraft was found not to comply with the FAA-accepted consensus standards and therefore was not in a condition for safe operation per the requirements of FAA regulations. We can't provide details because the particulars are proprietary.

There is no 'war' on the LSA business. The public and the industry have been briefed for quite some time that an FAA oversight program would be implemented as the result of the findings from the assessment project. We believe the assessment report is very clear on the issues and does not show any heavy-handedness."

A number of issues remain unresolved and unknown... i.e, what did Criquet do (or not do) that got their ability to produce LSAs suspended and what was involved in the process? We have asked for a direct dialogue with AIR-200 and are awaiting more info as soon as it becomes available. ANN is also in the process or awaiting a response from Criquet to see what they have to say about the matter...

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/air/hq/prod_airworthiness/, www.criquetaviation.com