Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, recently sent a letter to Calvin Scovel III, U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, requesting an investigation into how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) handled safety-related incidents involving Allegiant Air.
Nelson made the request after CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a report Sunday on the more than 100 mechanical issues Allegiant had between January 2016 and October 2017.
Allegiant also had been investigated in 2015 by The Tampa Bay Times for landings caused by serious mechanical failures and by The Washington Post in 2016 for aborted takeoffs, emergency descents, and emergency landings.
“I request you conduct a full audit or investigation into the FAA’s current policies regarding enforcement actions, its role in working with airlines to correct noncompliance issues and how the agency identifies larger trends that may be the result of specific incidents,” Nelson said. “I urge you to specifically review all internal communications between the FAA and Allegiant to ensure that no efforts are being undertaken to impede a full and forthright investigation of the airline’s maintenance and operational issues.”
The Senate FAA bill, which will be voted on in May, requires the agency to report commercial airline safety incidents to Congress annually.