Regulatory & Other Items

Opening statement at 14 September hearing by Deborah Hersman Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board A little over a year ago, on August 8, 2009, a single-engine Piper aircraft that had departed Teterboro, New Jersey on its way to Ocean City, New Jersey,...

With ever more reports of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job, those responsible for their work schedules are in full damage control mode. Within the past 30 days, there have been seven reports of sleeping controllers, beginning with a lone controller dozing...

The 10 August plane crash in the wilds of Alaska that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AL) is the latest in a long line of crashes that have killed politicians. Not that politicians as a group engage in risky behavior, but they do tend to fly more than the average...

The order to remove emergency oxygen from lavatories of transport-category airplanes is a done deal, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did indicate that public comments would be accepted on the matter. (See Aviation Safety Journal, March 2011, “Emergency...

For a perfectly useless document, look no further than the latest Information for Operators (InFO) published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). InFO 11007 issued on 10 March 2011 concerns “Regulatory Requirements Regarding Accommodation of Child Restraint...

By Gabe Bruno Executive Director FAA Whistleblowers Alliance With the political embarrassment that the recent sleeping controller reports have brought to the Obama Administration (including Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt), it...

  The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Randy Babbitt, said he is “personally outraged” that a sleeping controller in Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) tower caused two airliners to land without benefit of guidance or assistance. Perhaps the...

The FAA has already initiated action to nullify the emergency oxygen supply to aircraft lavatories, but the reasons for this hasty action are not stated. Furthermore, the FAA’s own Technical Center reports indicate that an activated oxygen generator does not generate...

For an “all or nothing” solution, the option of “nothing” is an unnecessary risk. Yet this option is the preferred choice in the recent action by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to eliminate emergency oxygen from aircraft lavatories. (See Aviation Safety...

For a picture of a sloppy operation which ended tragically, look no further than the takeoff crash of a firefighting helicopter in California in 2008. The case involves the intentional falsification of weight documents, the use of unapproved performance calculations,...