Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Randy Babbitt announced a new focus on improving the agency's response to public safety complaints and whistleblower contributions, as well as renewing efforts to ensure consistent interpretation of agency regulations and policies. He also outlined ongoing actions to ensure that air carriers comply with safety directives while minimizing disruptions to passengers.
In addition, the FAA is improving how it communicates and interacts with employees, the public, air carriers, and manufacturers, based on last year's focused inspections on air carriers' compliance with Airworthiness Directives (ADs). That effort resulted in flight cancellations and prompted questions about the treatment of whistleblowers and the FAA's relationships with airlines. The changes include creating a new Office of Audit and Evaluation that will handle all public safety complaints and whistleblower contributions. It will serve as the focal point for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Government Accountability Office, and the Department of Transportation's Inspector General. It will oversee the FAA Administrator's Hotline, Aviation Safety Hotline, Public Inquiry Hotline, Whistleblower Protection Hotline, and the Safety Issues Reporting System.
The FAA will no longer refer to airlines as the agency's "customer." Instead, through the Consistency and Standardization Initiative, the FAA is now providing managers and supervisors in safety offices around the nation with guidance to ensure that FAA decisions are consistent with rules and policies and are communicated in a standard, consistent manner.
The FAA is strengthening the procedures used by air carriers, manufacturers, and the FAA to ensure that air carriers comply with ADs. The goal is to maintain safety while minimizing disruptions to passengers by improving: service information and instructions from aerospace manufacturers; air carrier management of planning and prototyping how ADs are implemented and FAA coordination with the air carriers through the planning and prototyping process. For more information, visit www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets.
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