Independent Review Found Areas Where Agency Could Improve
On Wednesday, US
Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters directed the Federal
Aviation Administration to implement 13 new safety recommendations
from an independent review team tasked with reviewing the current
US aviation safety system.
"The mark of an effective safety system is its ability to
constantly improve and adapt," Peters said. "Today, the Independent
Review Team has delivered a blueprint that will assure continued
safe skies ahead for America."
Peters added the team’s report confirms the basic approach
to aviation safety in the United States has generated unprecedented
results, but that there are ways to make the system even safer. She
said the 13 recommendations in the report "will improve both the
intensity and the integrity of the FAA’s safety program," and
that the agency will begin implementing the recommendations
immediately.
A key recommendation by the review team, the Secretary committed
that the FAA will have guidance in place by the end of the year to
ensure that airworthiness directives and their deadlines are fully
understood by all appropriate FAA officials and airlines.
Another recommendation called for more rigorous and systematic
oversight of the FAA’s voluntary disclosure program. The
Secretary noted that the FAA has changed its procedures to require
senior managers to review voluntary disclosure reports. She said
that moving forward, FAA also will implement use of a new automated
data system to help track and ensure compliance.
The Independent Review Team also recommended new safeguards
against FAA personnel developing
"overly cozy" relationships with the airlines
they regulate through regular audits of field offices where the
managerial team has been in place for more than three years. "The
intent is clear: make sure everyone understands that the only
customer that matters in the end is the flying public," Secretary
Peters said.
Consistent with recommendations to improve the FAA’s
safety culture, the Secretary also charged the agency with
developing, and having underway within six months, a new training
program for safety managers and inspectors.
By this time next year, the Secretary announced, the FAA will
also have the results of the recommended study of the right balance
between the time inspectors spend inputting and analyzing data and
the time they spend in the field. "Understanding safety data is
essential, but making sure it is accurate is vital," the Secretary
said.
Members of the Independent Review Team included Ambassador
Edward W. Stimpson, who served as chairman; J. Randolph Babbitt;
William O. McCabe; Malcolm K. Sparrow; and the Hon. Carl W.
Vogt.
Below is the list of the Independent Review Team’s 13
Aviation Safety Recommendations:
-
Recommendation 1: The FAA
should retain the right to ground any plane not in compliance with
an applicable AD. Inspectors should not be required or expected to
conduct any type of risk-assessment before taking action on AD
non-compliance.
ACCEPTED –
FAA’s ongoing review of AD compliance will address inspector
requirements and expectations. The full AD review program will be
implemented by December 30, 2008.
- Recommendation 2: The FAA should provide timely
information about new AD requirements, in advance of compliance
dates, to all relevant FAA field offices. Those offices should then
be responsive to any carrier that requests assistance in the form
of progress-towards-compliance audits or reviews, in advance of the
AD compliance dates.
ACCEPTED –
FAA’s ongoing review of AD compliance will address
information dissemination and carrier requests among others. The
full AD review program will be implemented by December 30,
2008.
- Recommendation 3: The FAA’s Voluntary Programs
are vitally important to the future of aviation safety, and should
be retained. [Main report paragraph 5.1]
ACCEPTED – The
FAA will continue to enhance its Voluntary Disclosure Programs.
- Recommendation 4: The FAA must abide by the rules
circumscribing these programs in order to prevent the erosion of
compliance.
ACCEPTED – The
FAA will immediately reinforce the importance of these rules and
require higher-level management review of all disclosures.
- Recommendation 5: Voluntary Disclosure Reporting
Program (VDRP) data have not been routinely analyzed at a higher
level within the FAA. There are two quite different purposes for
such analysis, both of which the FAA should formally
recognize.
ACCEPTED – Data
from many sources can be used to make sure these programs are
operating effectively. The FAA will immediately begin
implementation of a program to gather and analyze this data.
- Recommendation 6: The number of voluntary disclosures
made by a regulated entity is a composite measure, and should not
be used either as a performance metric or as a risk-factor, in any
context.
ACCEPTED – The
FAA will review its risk assessment tools and eliminate areas where
there is an incentive to drive down the number of disclosures. This
review will be completed and implemented by December 30, 2008.
- Recommendation 7: It is clear to the IRT that
participation in all of the voluntary disclosure programs is
dependent on the assurance of confidentiality for information
submitted. The IRT believes the FAA should resist any efforts to
relax or eliminate any restrictions on disclosure.
ACCEPTED – This
is fundamental to the future of these programs and FAA will stress
the importance with all constituencies.
- Recommendation 8: The FAA should explicitly focus on
wide divergences in regulatory ideologies, where they exist, as a
source for potentially serious error.
ACCEPTED – To
be implemented by December 30, 2008.
-
Recommendation 9: Training for
Managers and Principal Inspectors should explicitly cover the
management of contrasting regulatory views within the workforce,
methods for moderating extremes in regulatory style, and methods
for optimizing the regulatory effectiveness and coherence across a
diverse team of inspectors.
ACCEPTED – To
be implemented by March 31, 2009.
- Recommendation 10: The FAA should deploy the Internal
Assistance Capability (IAC), recently established, to review the
composition and conduct of any offices or teams identified under
recommendation one above.
ACCEPTED – To
be implemented by June 30, 2009.
- Recommendation 11: The FAA should also deploy the IAC
on a routine basis to review the culture and conduct of any CMO
where the managerial team has remained intact for more than three
years.
ACCEPTED – To
be implemented by September 30, 2009.
- Recommendation 12: The IRT would urge the FAA to
embrace its own operational role in risk identification and risk
mitigation as formally and energetically as it has embraced its
role in overseeing industry’s SMS implementations; and to
expedite its implementation planning in this area.
ACCEPTED – The
FAA will develop and implement its own internal safety management
system before the end of 2010.
- Recommendation 13: We recommend that without delay the
FAA commission a time-and-motion study of its front-line inspection
operation, to empirically assess the time-demands of ATOS and other
IT implementations. With the results of such a study in hand,
agency leadership should establish some clear expectations
regarding the proportion of an inspector’s work-week that
data-entry, data-analysis, and other computer-related tasks should
reasonably consume, and monitor progress towards more reasonable
ratios as ATOS and other IT systems are improved over
time.
ACCEPTED – The
study will commence in March 2009 and be completed within one year.
Timeframe for implementation will depend on the recommendations