From the Valley News Dispatch (Pittsburgh PA), Tuesday June 18, 1996 :
Start Quote :
"A Gannett Newspapers analysis of internal FAA documents found that
ValuJet has been an airline with a troubling pattern of sloppy
operations and maintenance long before the May 11 crash.
While no single incident proved ValuJet was unsafe, it was a pattern the
FAA quitely was investigating without telling the public of its
concerns. Among the incidents :
* A leaky fuel tank grounded a ValuJet plane in April 1995 at
Washington’s Dulles International Airport. But instead of fixing the
leaky center tank, mechanics wired the tank shut so that nobody would
put fuel in it.
* The airline flew a plane with a leaky hydraulic system for almost a
month in the fall of 1994.
* After calls to an anonymous employee hotline, the FAA investigated
ValuJet’s drug-testing program and found the airline wasn’t
adequately testing employees.
"This was obviously an airline out of control", said aviation
consultant Michael boyd. "The FAA had its agenda to keep it
quiet so as not to embarrass the secretary(Pena)" "
End Quote.
Now, the biggest aircraft I’ve ever flown is a Skylane, so I’m
obviously not knowledgable about the first two examples cited above.
My question, for any DC-9 folks in the newsgroup, is would these two
conditions actually ground a DC-9, or were the fixes within flight
standards ?
The last example about the drug-testing, combined with Mr Boyd’s
statement, looks like they’re setting ValuJet up for some big
lawsuits regardless of what actually caused the crash (suprised ?).
Mark PP/ASEL/IA C-170A N3850V
Mark S. Bell 412-268-7925 (Voice)
Software Engineering Institute 412-268-5758 (Fax)
Carnegie Mellon University ** These are my opinions,
4500 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh PA.,15213 not those of the SEI or CMU **
Mark Bell wrote:
> "A Gannett Newspapers analysis of internal FAA documents found that
> ValuJet has been an airline with a troubling pattern of sloppy
> operations and maintenance long before the May 11 crash.
I’m certainly glad Gannett has put their expert analysis to things which
looks like you’re reading the FAA press release issued earlier this
week.
> * A leaky fuel tank grounded a ValuJet plane in April 1995 at
> Washington’s Dulles International Airport. But instead of fixing the
> leaky center tank, mechanics wired the tank shut so that nobody would
> put fuel in it.
Yeah, so. Most ValuJet legs are short. I’ve got a leaky sump valve on
my Navion, I tell people not to put fuel in it until I get the
replacement
valve. It decreases the available fuel from 100 to 60 gallons. 60
gallons
is enough to get to most places I go with 100% reserve.
> * After calls to an anonymous employee hotline, the FAA investigated
> ValuJet’s drug-testing program and found the airline wasn’t
> adequately testing employees.
The FAA Drug Testing program is perhaps one of the greatest debacles
foisted on industry by congressional hysteria. It’s not clear it’s
managed to make any difference in safety whatsoever, but it has falsely
destroyed a few careers as well as heaping an inordinate burden on
smaller
operators. The only one who is winning on this one are the shoestring
drug testing labs.
> "This was obviously an airline out of control", said aviation
> month in the fall of 1994.
The primary issue was lack of management (and perhaps even FAA)
supervision
of the maintenance and other operations. In order to keep personnel
costs
down much of everything ValuJet does is handled by near-unsupervised
outside contractors. This is one of the primary reasons stated by
Hinson
when he shut them down earlier this week.
> "The FAA had its agenda to keep it
> quiet so as not to embarrass the secretary(Pena)" "
> End Quote.
They’re doing a lousy job of keeping it quiet. Hinson was on every
radio and TV station announcing the suspension.
If I may add my .02 cents worth about Valujet, in the Toronto Star (Canada)
it says that The FAA announced the retirement of Anthony Broderick, its
associate administrator for certification and regulation. He was forced out
apparently for giving ValuJet permission to fly after the crash.
–
Very funny Scotty–now beam my clothes down too!’