WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has become so friendly with airlines that it no longer acts as the public’s watchdog, whistle- blowers told Congress on Thursday.
“We are told that the airlines are our customers,” FAA inspector Charlambe “Bobby” Boutris said.
“But we have a more important customer, the taxpayers” who want government to ensure a safe aviation system.
Boutris, who testified before the House Transportation Committee, complained last year about safety issues at Southwest Airlines. But his warnings went unheeded as the airline continued to fly planes not properly checked for cracks in the fuselage.
His chain of command was “downplaying serious safety issues” to please the airline, he said.
Nicholas Sabatini, the FAA’s associate administrator for safety, said he himself found it “astounding” that the safety system had failed so badly at Southwest.
He promised to make changes, including no longer using the term “customer” to describe airlines.
“We’re going to recalibrate that,” he said.
Moreover, “we must accept responsibility for mistakes,” he said.
Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., advised Sabatini not to focus on disciplining individuals because “the system itself has cracks.”
Boutris, who was assigned to the FAA office in Irving, Texas, near Southwest’s headquarters in Dallas, had raised warnings about Southwest skipping inspections since 2003. His supervisor, who has since been reassigned, suppressed the information rather than inconvenience Southwest, he said.
Boutris said the problems at Southwest received attention only after he contacted the Office of Special Counsel, a federal office that protects whistle-blowers.
Douglas Parker, another FAA inspector at Southwest, said he too “discovered that several aircraft had been operated in an unsafe condition.” Parker’s voice faltered as he recounted how last June, while typing up a report about “unethical actions” at Southwest, he got a visit from a supervisor. The manager began picking up photos of Parker’s family and commenting on the importance of family obligations.
“On his way out of the door, he made the following statement: ‘You have a good job here, and your wife has a good job over at the Dallas (FAA office); I’d hate to see you jeopardize your and her careers trying to take down a couple of losers,’ ” he said.
After the incident with the family photos, Parker told an FAA special agent of his experience involving Southwest. The inspectors’ concerns centered on the potential for the kinds of fuselage cracks that caused an Aloha Airlines 737 to tear apart in flight a decade ago. The rip allowed a flight attendant to be sucked out of the plane to her death.
After an investigation, the FAA proposed a $10.2 million fine against Southwest in March for failure to perform mandatory inspections.
The FAA then called for an industrywide review of inspection practices.
