No doubt about that. And there’s no doubt, either, that election-year politics lie behind the FAA’s new firmness and Pena’s request that Congress make safety the agency’s sole responsibility. But don’t confuse rhetoric with reform. Thanks to inept management, bureaucratic inertia and the constant tugging of powerful economic interests, the FAA remains one of the federal government’s least adaptive agencies, Congress loves to hate it and hates to change it. Neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have given more than lip service lo restructuring the way it oversees the airways and the airlines, and Pena’s get-tough proclamations won’t alter much. Says George Washington University airline expert Darryl Jenkins, “The thing I’m most concerned about ins that people will think the problems have been solved.”
Those problems became shockingly visible in the wake of the May 11 crash. There is still no evidence that the disaster was due to the way Valujet maintained its planes. An explosion of improperly sealed oxygen generators in the plane’s cargo hold remains the most likely cause. But as FAA inspectors combed the airline’s records, they found chaos. Valujet had acquired 48 aircraft in just 31 months of operation. Fast growth was vital to the Atlanta-based carrier’s survival against local rival Delta Air Lines. Fast growth, however, came at a cost. The consent order by which Valujet agreed to shut down cites no fewer than 43 breaches of’ safety rules, from a misconnected tail cone to a weather radar that was reported defective 31 times before being fixed.
Those violations were found after the crash. But the FAA had heard grave concerns months earlier. On Feb. 14, inspectors urged that the agency force Valujet to immediately address “known safety related issues.” Two weeks later inspectors warned ValuJet president Lewis Jordan of major shortcomings. Jordan, listing a host of planned improvements, pleaded with the FAA “to avoid the unnecessary and damaging sanctions.” DOT, which had claimed credit for encouraging start-up carriers, chose not to act against its biggest Success story. Instead. it launched yet another review of the airline. The draft report, citing major safety problems, was in the FAA’s hands when Pena and Hinson affirmed ValuJet’s safety on May 12.
Pena’s endorsement of ValuJet didn’t play well at the White House. That night, NEWSWEEK sources say, three of Bill Clinton’s top aides cautioned the secretary to say nothing that might return to haunt him. Pena replied that FAA officials have told him their inspectors have found Valujet to be safe. Once that proved wrong, White House spinmeisters took charge. Closing Valujet and dumping Broderick were Pena and Hinson’s calls. But when they told Clinton chief of staff Leon Panenetta and adviser George Stepbanopoulos last Monday of the changes to come, the Clinton aides pushed for a quick announcement lest the administration have to explain why an unsafe airline stayed aloft. The decision, the latest in a series of black marks against the transport chief, was sensitive enough that Clinton himself was briefed.
The FAA s new policies force airlines to keep closer tabs on outside repair shops. such as those Valujet used. That may or may not enhance safety, but it will almost certainly slow the expansion of start-ups. Pena’s other initiative, asking Congress to make the FAA responsible only for policing safety, rather than for promoting the industry, also misses the mark. it’s not the law that keeps the FAA from cracking down on safety, it’s pressure from the airlines - and from Congress. Political gridlock has defeated every scheme to reconstruct the FAA’s antiquated air-traffic-control system. And in 1993, when Clinton named a comMission to Study the airline industry, the “massive Cumulative cost burden” of FAA safety rules received prominent attention. Funny how that works. As Pena and Hinson took heat last week for being soft on ValuJet, the words “cost burden” were not heard anywhere.
