Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Delta Pays $1.5 Million FAA Fine for Safety Violations Discovered in 1991<By
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 10:44:02 EST
Message-ID: <45.1992Nov26.104402@AmeriCast.com>
Lines: 52

Delta Pays $1.5 Million FAA Fine for Safety Violations Discovered
in 1991<By Don Phillips=Washington Post Staff Writer=

Delta Airlines paid a $1.5 million fine to the Federal Aviation
Administration yesterday to settle a civil penalty for safety
violations found in a special inspection early last year.

Because Delta moved aggressively to correct the violations, pri-
marily failure to follow aircraft maintenance rules and regula-
tions, FAA officials said $500,000 of what would have been a $2
million fine was suspended.  Anthony J. Broderick, the FAA's as-
sociate administrator for regulation and certification, said that
an in-depth inspection found 20 separate violations and that
later inspections uncovered 42 other maintenance violations. Some
violations are expected to occur occasionally, but Delta's were
"a lot more widespread than we like to see at a major carrier,"
he said.

Many of the violations involved failure to document performed
maintenance, to oversee performance of required safety orders and
to complete specific maintenance in time. "There was a real lack
of control," Broderick said.

Among specific items cited were allowing an aircraft to make 63
flights without complying with an FAA order to inspect for cracks
in the rudder control system and operating one aircraft's auxili-
ary power unit - which provides electrical power on the ground -
for 3,229 hours beyond scheduled maintenance. After the inspec-
tion, Delta replaced some top managers and took corrective steps.
Russ Heil, the new senior vice president overseeing maintenance,
"has really put a lot of changes in place," Broderick said.
"They've got a ways to go to complete these actions, but their
attitude . . . is very encouraging." Broderick also emphasized
that the FAA did not find aircraft flying in an unsafe condition.
If flying Delta were not safe, he said, "they wouldn't be paying
a fine. They wouldn't be flying airplanes."

Delta officials said in a statement that the airline had revamped
quality-assurance programs and formed a new technical standards
group to oversee maintenance quality.

"Following the inspection in 1991, we committed ourselves to do
whatever was necessary to resolve all of the discrepancies found
by the report," Heil said in the statement.< 02:35 11-26C9999---
--

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)