FAA Finds Commuter Airline Violations

WASHINGTON--The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that a nine-month inspection uncovered safety violations and "what appear to be systemic deficiencies" with the management of the nation's commuter airlines.

The inspection was announced last March after a series of accidents involving commuters.

The FAA said its examination of the commuter industry showed that while there are some air carriers that were found in full compliance with federal air regulations, "others demonstrated a need for significant improvements."

The inspections, which covered 35 airlines, resulted in 1284 violations of air safety regulations, about one-third of which were considered serious enough to warrant a possible civil penalty.

This year commuter airlines are expected to carry more than 32 million people in and out of 800 cities.

The FAA inspections covered about 20 percent of 172 commuter air carriers. They followed seven commuter accidents over a four-month period in late 1987 and early 1988 resulting in 56 deaths.

In announcing the results of the inspection of the 35 commuter carriers, FAA Administrator Allan McArtor said in a letter to all commuter airlines:

"I am particularly concerned about what appear to be systemic deficiencies with management personnel. The most serious findings of the inspections reflected a lack of management knowledge of, and experience with, complex commuter air carrier regulations as well as substandard administration of training and deficient aircraft inspection programs."

The commuter airline industry, responding to the FAA findings, acknowleged some shortcomings and attributed many of the problems to the industry's rapid growth in recent years.

"We were aware that the tremendous growth of regional airlines may have created difficulties for some carriers in filling operational and maintenance posts," said Duance Ekedahl, president of the Regional Airline Association.

The Regional Airline Association announced Friday it was forming a special task force of industry officials to find ways for the commuters to retain experienced pilots and management employees.

The FAA said that it found in its inspections some of the airlines failed to fill management positions or filled them with "inexperienced or unqualified people." For example, the agency said, a chief pilot at one airline was not aware of regulations on how much rest pilots should be allowed.

In areas of training, the inspectors found that at times pilots did not complete required competency checks, training records were incomplete or did not exist and testing standards were obsolete, the FAA said.

Shortcomings also were uncovered in maintenance and items were found during inspections, but not repaired, allowing aircraft to be "prematurely approved for a return to service."

The airlines inspected were selected at random, according to FAA officials. The FAA provided no breakdown as to what was found at each airline.