FAA Team Urges Stricter Checks

<H1> FAA Team Urges Stricter Checks</H1><I>Washington, D.C. </I>- A federal aviation safety review team formed after the fatal ValuJet crash in the Everglades has recommended stiffer oversight of start-up airlines, plus strict Federal Aviation Administration scrutiny of their management and growth during the first five years of operation.

The report concluded that the FAA should create a special certification team to process applications from new entrants. Moreover, the agency should be empowered by Congress to charge application fees to cover its services. Currently, would-be airlines pay application filing fees to the Department of Transportation but nothing to the FAA. The safety review team, headed by deputy FAA administrator Linda Daschle, noted that the General Accounting Office estimated the agency spends about $5 million annually to process fitness applications. The agency also would abandon the practice of assisting unprepared companies in completing the application process.

The Daschle team said conducting safety surveillance on a newly certified airline is often difficult due to the numerous changes that typically occur in the fledgling carrier's operations during the first few years in business. For this reason, the review team urged that the "safe growth" of new carriers be managed through the FAA's use of operations specifications that would detail the allowable number of aircraft, aircraft types and scope of operations.

Many of the recommendations mirror the restrictions that were placed on ValuJet before it was allowed to return to service last month. One of the review team's recommendations, for example, would expand the FAA's control over a carrier's decision to contract out its maintenance functions. Airlines would be forced to provide much more information about these contracts, such as the names of companies that provide the maintenance, the names of the airline personnel who oversee the maintenance and the adequacy of the airline's maintenance budget.

The Daschle team also urged budget approval from Congress to hire an additional 146 safety inspectors next year and 135 more in 1998.

FAA administrator David Hinson said that, once in place, the 30 major recommendations in Daschle's report would "greatly enhance the agency's ability to target resources more strategically and to respond more rapidly to changes in the aviation industry.