Aviation Safety

Nine out of the 15 countries recently visited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lacked government oversight to ensure that their carriers complied with international safety standards. As a result, the Department of Transportation did not approve new carrier applications from these nations. Already licensed carriers from these countries, however, can continue to fly into the United States because FAA believes that they have already established safety records. FAA also has concerns about potential retaliation by foreign governments against the United States. To ensure that carriers from countries not meeting international standards are safe, FAA is increasing inspection coverage but has not stipulated the kind, frequency, or location of inspections. Current FAA inspections tend to be limited to examining aircraft markings, pilot licenses, and airworthiness certificates. Agency guidance, however, allows more close inspections of foreign carriers when FAA finds or suspects serious safety concerns. In three recent cases, FAA discovered serious structural cracks and corrosion, removed the aircraft from service, but made no effort to determine whether other planes run by the same carriers were safe. In another instance, FAA did not act promptly when alerted by the Canadians to serious deficiencies uncovered in Mexican aircraft during an in-depth inspection. FAA did not increase surveillance until 2-1/2 months later, after the carrier had already been involved in four serious incidents in U.S. airspace.

GAO found that: (1) FAA assessed foreign carrier compliance with international safety standards when new carriers applied for U.S. operator's licenses; (2) 6 of the 15 countries FAA visited met or exceeded international safety standards; (3) countries failing to meet international safety standards lacked operations or airworthiness inspectors, technical expertise, proficiency checks for pilots and crew, inspector training, and aviation regulations, handbooks or guidance; (4) although DOT did not allow new foreign carrier applicants that failed the FAA safety assessment, FAA permitted already licensed carriers to operate in the United States because they had established safety records; (5) FAA officials planned to increase inspection coverage, but FAA has not stated the nature of inspections to be performed, frequency of inspections, or when they should occur; (6) FAA inspections primarily consisted of examining aircraft markings, pilot licenses, and airworthiness certificates; (7) FAA guidance permitted closer inspection of foreign carriers when serious safety concerns existed; and (8) FAA did not act promptly when Canada notified it that specific aircraft did not meet international standards.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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