Letter to Claire McCaskill From James Little RE: FAA Safety and Security Concerns

March 26, 2013

The Honorable Claire McCaskill
717 Hart Senate Office Building U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator McCaskill:

I am writing you to ask you if the FAA has closed any additional safety and security items noted in their response to you January 11, 2010′. Within that letter to you, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) stated that they had reviewed the FAA’s progress on the safety and security gaps in our nation’s aircraft maintenance systems that were revealed during three separate investigations. 2Within the OIG’s series of reports, 23 recommendations have been made to close the gaps and as of the Mr. Scovel’s letter to you in 2010 only 7 of those items had been completed. As a frequent flyer, aviation mechanic, and representative of the Transport Workers Union I have been monitoring the U.S. DOT, OIG website and have not seen and progress. What has the FAA done to address the OIG recommendations?

There is a new push by ARSA to have the ban on issuing new repair station licenses lifted and the FAA is seriously considering it. Their request to have the ban lifted ignores the fact that the FAA has not corrected the oversight issues cited by the OIG. Non-airline MROs foreign and domestic would be allowed to operate with no background checks and no drug testing for those employees who work on aircraft that operate within the U.S. airspace. The FAA has not addressed all the recommendations from the OIG and until such time they are addressed the ban should not be lifted.

On behalf of the over 50,000 aircraft maintenance professionals, 10,000 aircraft mechanics that the TWU represents and the traveling public I urge you to inquire with the FAA as to if there has been any progress on the OIG recommendations? If not, then what are the next steps to ensuring and maintaining the highest level of safety and security of our air transportation system? As a representative of the TWU I am not asking for special protection through excessive regulation but that the FAA maintains a consistent and uniform approach to regulation. I strongly believe that if the rules and regulations are applied equally to foreign and domestic aircraft maintenance organizations that American union labor will not only survive but thrive.