The Department of Transportation Inspector General has determined that the FAA is not adequately fulfilling its responsibility for overseeing U.S. and foreign aviation repair stations. In a report released on May 1, 2013 the DOT OIG concluded that the FAA did not ensure that maintenance work done at repair stations met FAA standards. The repair stations that were the subject of the report were generally ones that performed contract maintenance for commercial airlines.

Specifically, the report stated that the FAA does not adequately allocate its oversight manpower to those repair stations that pose the greatest risk to safety. The report further noted that FAA does not use a risk assessment tools at all on foreign repair stations that work on U.S. commercial aircraft. The report contained several other specific examples of shortcomings, but the general conclusion was that the “FAA’s oversight of foreign and domestic repair stations lacks the rigor needed to identify deficiencies and verify that they have been addressed.”

Although the FAA and various aviation commenters have down played the report, the DOT’s findings are concerning. Because of limited FAA manpower, repair stations generally police themselves. In this author’s experience, the oversight that is provided is often limited to review of paperwork and does not drill down into the day-to-day practices and procedures. Since repair stations are businesses, their first focus is naturally going to be on profits. If there is not adequate oversight, the possibility of putting profits ahead of safety is very real. Hopefully, the FAA will take to heart the DOT’s recommendations on how to fix this problem to ensure that commercial aviation remains safe for the flying public.

A pdf of the full DOT report is below:

FAA Repair Station Oversight^5-1-13

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