Aviation Safety

Concerned that some airlines have been paying more attention to profits than to safety and have been inadequately monitoring compliance with safety regulations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced two major initiatives to improve air safety. The self-audit program encourages airlines to voluntarily develop better ways of evaluating all basic areas--maintenance, flight operations, and security. The voluntary disclosure program urges airlines to report safety problems with the promise of amnesty from any fine or penalty if they take corrective actions approved by FAA. While FAA's objectives are laudable, and the programs reflect improvements long advocated by industry observers, GAO is concerned that basic incentives for the airlines to act on their own are uncertain. In addition, FAA has not clearly articulated basic implementation issues or adequately trained its inspectors. Furthermore, FAA's "hands-off" approach to oversight does not convey a strong sense of commitment to the industry. Fundamental FAA oversight is needed if the programs are to have any chance of living up to their promise.

GAO found that: (1) the Self-Audit Program (SAP) encourages airlines to voluntarily develop improved mechanisms to evaluate maintenance, flight operations, and security; (2) the Voluntary Disclosure Program encourages airlines to report safety problems with the promise of amnesty from fine or penalty if they take FAA-approved corrective actions; (3) FAA has had limited progress in implementing both programs; (4) of the 10 airlines reviewed, only 1 believed that it met, or plans to meet, SAP guidelines; (5) as of September 1991, voluntary disclosures were limited to 292 reports from 96 airlines, or about 3 percent of the 3,031 eligible to participate; (6) although airlines acknowledge that SAP could increase operational efficiency and provide incentives, they believe that the programs would only provide a marginal increase in safety and are concerned that any program benefits could be overshadowed by extra staff and other program implementation costs; (7) the airlines believe that they may incur revenue losses if FAA cannot protect them against voluntary disclosures of safety violations that may be released under the Freedom of Information Act; (8) written FAA program guidance was ambiguous and did not clearly answer basic, pertinent airline questions regarding procedural and structural changes; (9) FAA inspectors stated that program training did not adequately answer airline officials' questions; (10) FAA does not plan to monitor or approve airline self-audit programs and has not assigned sufficient staff to analyze voluntary disclosures and determine trends in safety problems; and (11) FAA officials stated that they have focused their resources on program advocacy rather than program implementation.

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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