U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said his committee’s look into the Federal Aviation Administration revealed some troublesome findings.
Wicker released the committee’s report on its investigation into the FAA on Friday.
The investigation, which started in April 2019, followed the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX airplanes and whistleblower reports that there was reason to be concerned with the FAA and aviation safety.
“Twenty months ago, the Commerce Committee launched an investigation into FAA safety oversight. We have received disclosures from more than 50 whistleblowers, conducted numerous FAA staff interviews, and reviewed over 15,000 pages of relevant documents,” said Wicker. “Our findings are troubling. The report details a number of significant examples of lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership in the FAA. It is clear that the agency requires consistent oversight to ensure their work to protect the flying public is executed fully and correctly.”
The committee found that despite repeated findings of deficiencies over several decades. FAA senior managers have not been held accountable for their failures to develop and deliver adequate training in flight standards. Additionally, the committee found that the FAA continues to retaliate against whistleblowers instead of welcoming the information they bring forward.
The report also found that the FAA repeatedly allowed Southwest Airlines to operate dozens of aircraft over several years where the airworthiness was unknown. During the 737 MAX recertification testing, the committee found that Boeing may have inappropriately influenced FAA human factor simulator testing of pilot reaction times.
The committee said it felt that FAA senior leaders might have obstructed a DOT OIG review of the 737 MAX crashes. Wicker said the Department of Transportation Office of General Counsel (DOT OGC) failed to provide the committee with relevant documents as requested by him as the chair of the committee, a direct violation of the Constitution.
“However, some of the correspondence in response to the Chairman’s letters at times appeared to be contradictory and misleading. In a September 23, 2019, letter to President Trump, U.S. Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner indicated that ‘FAA’s official responses to Congress appear to have been misleading in their portrayal of FAA employee training and competency,’” the committee said in its report. “Because of the slow response to document requests, Chairman Wicker sent a letter in December of 2019 to FAA Administrator Steve Dickson requesting that twenty-one FAA employees be made available for interview by Committee staff. Over the twenty-month investigation, Committee staff were permitted to interview nine employees. Three of the requested employees departed from the FAA after the request for interviews was made but were not made available before their departure… The documents received and the FAA employee interviews conducted produced inconsistencies, contradictions, and in one case, possible lack of candor. However, the totality of the reviewed evidence corroborated and firmly supports the vast majority of whistleblower allegations.”