As part of a settlement reached with the Federal Aviation Administration, L.A.B. Flying Service will not fight the certificate revocation of the air carrier. FAA grounded the airline on July 24 owing to discrepancies in its maintenance program, which it described as “an astounding number” of aircraft maintenance problems as well as falsification of records. The Juneau-based airline’s aircraft were deemed unairworthy in June and FAA objected to the fact that the mechanic who falsified reports was not fired. The FAA previously cited the airline twice before.
The revocation started last December, according to the Juneau Empire, when management brought in a magneto that suffered a catastrophic failure and it was discovered the airline had flown with the part 679 hours past its inspection date. The FAA began its inspection and found several additional problems until it discovered mechanics replacing an engine on a Piper aircraft. The engine had been burned in a fire a year earlier when another Piper was destroyed without injury after the pilot reported a fire on board immediately after takeoff. The fire was so intense as to burn a hole in the firewall and distort the engine mounts.