Aviation Safety

New airlines, on average, have experienced higher accident rates and more Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enforcement actions than have established airlines. This does not mean that new airlines are unsafe, but it does argue for better targeting of FAA's limited inspection resources. During the five-year period GAO reviewed, FAA policies did not require new airlines to be monitored any differently than established airlines, and actual inspection rates varied widely among new airlines. GAO believes that the performance of new airlines should be closely monitored during their first years of operations and that airlines with greater safety risks should be targeted for more comprehensive inspections. On a broader scale, serious problems continue to hamper the effectiveness of FAA's safety inspection program. Although FAA has tried to better target its inspection resources and has reevaluated safety inspector training and work assignments, several unresolved issues remain. Resource constraints resulting from budget cuts in such areas as safety inspector training present a continuing challenge for FAA. GAO believes that recent FAA initiatives, such as its 90 Day Safety Review, may significantly improve the inspection program, but only if they are effectively implemented. Public concern about the safety of the nation's aviation system has escalated recently as a result of the ValuJet and TWA crashes, and several groups have urged FAA to publish safety data for specific airlines. GAO agrees that the time has come for FAA to begin the process that would lead to the publishing of such information for use by the traveling public.

GAO found that: (1) although data regarding airline accidents and FAA incident and enforcement actions require cautious interpretation, it appeared that, for the review period of 1990 through 1994, new airlines had higher rates of accidents, incidents, and FAA enforcement actions than established airlines during their early years of operations; (2) FAA officials theorized that new airlines may experience more incidents because their fleets expand faster than their ability to absorb growth, train staff, and maintain fleets; (3) FAA national inspection guidelines that were in effect during the review period did not target new airlines for increased surveillance; (4) no clear pattern in the inspection rates distinguished airlines with relatively high rates of incidents and enforcement actions from those that had few or no problems; (5) FAA aviation safety inspection program shortcomings include insufficient inspector training, inadequate aviation safety databases, and the need to improve the oversight of aging aircraft; (6) FAA actions to better target its inspection resources to areas with the greatest safety risks remain incomplete; and (7) initiatives to accelerate the hiring of safety inspectors, strengthen FAA data collection and tracking systems, review FAA inspection operations, and conduct a safety review have the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the FAA safety inspection program.

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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