Owner Blames Overzealous Inspector, Disgruntled Employees

Southwest Aviation Specialties LLC of Tulsa, OK is back in business, after the company reached a settlement agreement last month stemming from a March 17 revocation by the Federal Aviation Administration of its repair station certificate, air charter certificate and the mechanic certificate of owner David Guzman.

The April 12 settlement with the FAA reinstated the repair station certificate and Guzman's mechanics certificate according to the Tulsa World Monday.  The company charter certificate remains suspended until training and submission of a procedural manual is completed.

"We don't do that much chartering anyway. Most of our business is maintenance, acquisitions and leasing. There is also a huge market overseas for acquiring planes, selling planes and in the service market in Russia, India, Far East and Middle East," said Guzman.

FAA action stems from an investigation between September 27, 2006 and October 10, 2006 conducted by the Oklahoma City Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) of the maintenance practices of Southwest Aviation Specialties. The FSDO was acting on allegations of unapproved parts usage on aircraft repairs by the company.

Investigation records showed work orders claiming on August 4, 2006, the company performed work on an attitude gyro, that the company was not rated to work on.

According to FAA records, a week later Southwest performed maintenance on an air-speed indicator that the company should not have worked or returned to service on August 11, 2006. Earlier records also showed the company performed maintenance on February 16, 2006 of an emergency power supply that it was not rated to handle.

The FAA action noted: "A certificate holder such as (Southwest Aviation) that repeatedly instructs unauthorized persons to make false entries on records required to be kept, and that performs maintenance without holding the required rating and subsequently approves components and/or parts for return to service that were not properly inspected and/or maintained, contrary to regulatory requirements, demonstrates a disregard for regulatory compliance that threatens aviation safety and is contrary to the public interest."

"I never falsified a record and I never instructed anyone to falsify a record," Guzman said to the Tulsa World. "It was our belief that we had the authority to do the work we were doing based on the instructions from the FAA."

After spending an estimated $50,000 battling the FAA, Guzman feels the FAA action was lead by an overzealous inspector who used unfounded claims by former employees as the basis of the investigation.

"Nothing like this has ever happened to us before," Guzman said. "This investigation was driven by an out-of-control inspector who listened to disgruntled, former employees. I kept saying if someone will truly listen to the facts, this will go away and someone did and it did go away."

In an affidavit submitted by Guzman to the Tulsa World, former Southwest Aviation employ Cristi Yates, a receptionist, states she was contacted by inspector Billy Risley and questioned about Southwest Aviation Specialties. Risley is an inspector with the FAA's Oklahoma City FSDO.

"I wrote a letter to Mr. Risley with the Federal Aviation Administration," the affidavit states. "I wrote it after he and I had a phone conversation where he told me what he needed me to put in a letter and told me what to say."

Though Guzman said Yates is not a disgruntled former employee, he mentioned at least three former employees talked to the FAA. The US Department of Defense is currently investigating the company, based on the FAA action and the fact Guzman's FAA-certified repair station works on altimeters that could end up in government airplanes.

Guzman said he has turned over documents to the DoD in connection with similar claims that his company used unapproved airplane parts for planes that were serviced at his repair station.

The Defense Department would neither confirm nor deny an investigation of Southwest Aviation Specialties.

Guzman said he is confident the investigation will yield no wrongdoing on his part.

"We were told that if we had done anything wrong that it could be criminal," Guzman said. "Everybody is pretty sure that with the destruction of the FAA case, there is really no case."

FMI: www.swaviation.net, www.faa.gov