Mechanic Licenses Scrutinized

A former FAA official is criticizing the agency for not following up on retesting hundreds of aircraft mechanics with faulty certification. Former FAA manager Gabriel Bruno told Dallas television station WFAA that the agency has not done enough to retest A&P mechanics that obtained certification from St. George Aviation Testing Center in Florida in 1999. After a federal investigation uncovered the center was issuing fraudulent licenses, Bruno helped re-check around 350 of the 1,800 mechanics that had been certified from the testing site, with around 80 percent failing the exams. Efforts were suspended to retest the remaining mechanics until 2005, when a St. George-certified A&P was linked to a crash of a seaplane in Miami that resulted in the deaths of 20 people onboard. According to WFAA, up to 80 St. George mechanics have still not been tested, and records show that 33 may still be active in Texas, several of which work for major airlines. Bruno says that FAA is not doing enough to locate and re-examine the mechanics. But a spokesman told the Associated Press that the agency has tracked down the students who obtained fraudulent certificates. Ronald Herwig — who insisted that FAA has a handle on the situation — says that 43 percent of the 1,445 mechanics who received certificates from St. George’s passed a follow-up test. Half of the mechanics had their licenses suspended or revoked, and another seven percent are no longer under FAA scrutiny, he added.
For related news