Airline Faults Shifting Rules About Safety

From the New York Times

When American Airlines grounded 3,000 flights last week and stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers, the company’s chief executive apologized by saying he took “personal responsibility” for the safety-compliance problems. But now the airline, which faces the prospect of more groundings in coming weeks as the Federal Aviation Administration broadens its sweep of inspections, says the F.A.A. deserves much of the blame. The agency has unfairly changed rules for how airlines must comply with safety orders, called airworthiness directives, and is making unreasonable demands about how much interpretation is allowed, according to engineers at American’s huge maintenance base here. “We’re confused and frustrated,” said Greg A. Magnuson, lead engineer for MD-80 airframe and systems engineering. The F.A.A. has always given the company “latitude,” he said, for complying with directives by making small variations to resolve any contradictions or ambiguities. And now, those changes, which may be as simple as putting a bolt through a hole so it is facing forward rather than backward, are being highly scrutinized. “We don’t know what the rules are,” added Andrew Rook, a technical crew chief for avionics. There are obvious risks for American in publicly criticizing the agency that oversees it, given the F.A.A.’s power to bring the airline to a near-standstill. But after maintenance and oversight lapses at Southwest Airlines, aviation experts say the F.A.A. has toughened its relationship with the industry after years of a more collaborative approach. Some executives in the industry said last week — though only if they were not quoted by name — that the F.A.A. was overreacting. American is alone, so far, in its questioning of the F.A.A., and its goal appears to be push back on a pendulum that it feels has swung too far.
More