Bipartisan Senate Bill Calls For Increased FAA Oversight
This week, US senators
Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the
Safe Aviation Facilities Ensure Aircraft Integrity and Reliability
Act of 2008. which calls for stricter oversight of foreign repair
stations. Not surprisingly, the Professional Aviation Safety
Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO -- the union that represents more than
11,000 FAA employees -- including aviation safety inspectors, are
commending the action.
PASS National President Tom Brantley released the following
statement regarding the bill:
"In light of recent failures of FAA management in addressing
inspector’s repeated safety concerns in this country, it is
clear that the FAA must be more vigilant in how it oversees the
industry. The McCaskill-Specter SAFE AIR Act takes aggressive
action by ensuring that all major air carrier maintenance work only
be performed by certificated repair stations, that foreign
certificated repair stations are inspected at least twice a year by
an FAA inspector, and that all workers working on U.S. aircraft at
foreign repair facilities be drug and alcohol tested. If a foreign
repair facility wants to work on US-registered aircraft or any
aircraft that operates in this country, meeting the same safety
standards as domestic repair stations should be non-negotiable.
"U.S. air carriers are increasingly relying upon overseas repair
facilities to perform critical maintenance work on its aircraft,
and yet, many of these facilities are not subject to the same level
of oversight, scrutiny and inspections as domestic repair stations.
With airlines taking tremendous cost-cutting steps to reduce
overhead and operating expenses, now is the time for the FAA to
increase its oversight of airline maintenance, especially
oversees.
"We commend Senators McCaskill and Specter for their efforts to
raise attention on this very important matter. This bill is
critical to the safety of the flying public, and we are hopeful
that it will be enacted so that we can continue to defend this
country’s reputation as having the safest aviation system in
the world."
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.