This initial closing brief could almost be called, "The
Federal Aviation Administration, A Story of Blood and Guts." It reflects upon actual conditions
identified during this hearing. The price paid for this conditions has been high
and gruesome. It is time that a spade is called a spade and actions taken to
correct the conditions. The use of "role colored glasses" or other
cover-up means are not suitable for the conditions existing herein.
This hearing has illustrated that the Federal Aviation Agency as
it pertains to Flight Standards and particularly the Western Region has allowed
thousands of safety violations of the regulations to exist in serious safety
areas with a major air carrier. These violations of safety regulations, including
noncompliance with agency safety directives, were accomplished with the obvious
knowledge, condoning and cover-up by certain FAA management personnel.
It has shown that massive and continuous violations of the
important emergency training regulatory requirements have occurred since
approximately March 1962 in clear noncompliance with the intent and the specifics
of the Agency regulations and Agency directives.
World's Worst Air Disaster: DC-8
Crash Into New York City
Such violations existed during the hearing (tr 1928) and over three
years after numerous Agency directives were sent to the field stressing the
requirement for such compliance to insure passenger survival in otherwise
survivable accidents. That the need for such compliance was obvious from actual
observance of the cremation of 16 passengers on the FAA "doorsteps" in
Denver during a DC-8 tragic accident. That such noncompliance was apparently
known and tolerated by various FAA management persons in charge of the program,
that they obviously knew of the association between deaths of the passengers on the DC-8 aircraft and that requirement. That such person was too
intimately involved in petty and vicious conduct against the reporting inspector
to be concerned with the open violation of this major requirement.
The net result is that several thousand crewmembers are now in
noncompliance with this regulatory requirement with an obvious safety deficiency
existing that will take several years to correct.
It has been shown that there has been a continuous and massive
noncompliance with an Agency regulatory requirements ....
The noncompliance with regulatory requirements and Agency
directives has existed for approximately six years with numerous Agency exhibits
indicating the truth of this condition. It has been shown that serious
destructive incidents and hair-raising near-incidents have occurred as a result
of this condition that is uncorrected by FAA management.
It has been shown that
Washington instructions specifically directed to Chief, Flight Standards
Division, have been disregarded (Exhibit 89) and that the Washington
instructions and Agency regulations are deliberately ignored by certain FAA
management. It has been shown that inspectors are actually ordered to
participate in a dangerous condition that is in massive noncompliance with
agency instructions and regulations. This condition is highly dangerous to the
persons on board the aircraft and those on the ground.
It has been shown that there has been massive and continuous
noncompliance with regulatory and Agency directives ... condoned and covered up by numerous FAA management personnel. ...
It has been shown that FAA management has stubbornly refused to
correct the conditions that caused or allowed the world's greatest air disaster
to occur, the DC-8 crash into the city of New York. It has been shown that FAA
management has stubbornly and persistently refused to correct the serious
conditions identified by Washington directives that stress the need for
immediate corrective actions. This safety deficiency undoubtedly played a major
role in this accident. It has been shown that the conditions were actually being
encouraged by condoning the air safety violations that enabled the New York City air
disaster to occur.
It has been shown that certain management personnel have been
closely associated with numerous tragic air disasters of operation safety
deficiencies, that such FAA personnel were responsible for the safety activities
and standards of the air carrier, and that such personnel before and after the
major air tragedies tolerated or ignored the conditions that were involved in
the accidents. It has been shown that they have continually been promoted within
the Agency despite such associations and despite their known misconduct that
reflects gravely upon the ability of the Federal Aviation Agency to properly
function.
Retaliation Against Federal Air
Safety Inspectors
It has been shown that any inspector who identifies and attempts
to take corrective actions suffers heavily from the tranquility seeking FAA
management.
Refusal by FAA management to act on serious safety problems were
proven during the four-month-long hearing and stated in the closing brief.
It has been shown that FAA management has
repeatedly refused to
take corrective actions on unsatisfactory company check airmen, unsatisfactory
recurrent training programs, noncompliance with emergency training program and
regulatory requirements, noncompliance with proficiency check oral requirements,
noncompliance with landing out of circling approaches as required by
regulations, serious safety deficiencies and other safety deficiencies.
It has been made obvious that the FAA is
unable and
unwilling to cope with
hidden safety deficiencies as proven by the fact it will not act on obvious and
major safety deficiencies.
It has been shown that the Denver DC-8 accident that
caused the loss of 18 lives was associated with a defective reverse procedure
that was reported to FAA management before the accident and was ignored until
its involvement with that tragedy.
It has been shown that the
Agency's present management is unable
and unwilling to correct the deplorable, almost criminal misconduct that is
occurring within its ranks with tragic prices being paid by the destruction of
the required values upon which the Agency must function. Aviation safety will
deteriorate with the deterioration of values in the Agency.
It has been shown that massive disregard of job responsibilities
have existed in the Western Region with persons in responsible positions
ignoring numerous safety deficiencies. An evaluation will reveal that for a
given tour of duty, certain FAA management personnel have not accomplished a
single major corrective action for unsafe conditions known or reported to them.
It has been shown that FAA management has numerous personnel that are thoroughly
incapable of understanding the requirements of safety today who are responsible for making
decisions involving important safety requirements when
they cannot possibly comprehend the magnitude of the problems. The serious misconduct that I have identified is deliberate and dangerous refusal of local
FAA management to follow specific Washington directives and regulations.
It has been seen that certain FAA management personnel have
deliberately refused to correct safety deficiencies, clearly stressed by
Washington directives, after the identical condition caused major air disasters.
It has been shown that they remain in position in grade and are continually
promoted and/or receive pay increases. It has been seen that the inspectors who
recognize the safety deficiencies and act as Washington instructions clearly
specify is discredited, denied promotions and considered troublemakers in the
"tranquility seeking" FAA.
Among recent crashes Associated with
Previously Reported Serious Safety Problems and Safety Violations, and
Retaliation Against Reporting Federal Air Safety Inspectors
United Airlines DC-8 crash into New York City. (Due to poor
piloting performance, preceded by airline no providing legally required training
and competency checks and then falsifying its records; poor competency standards
by certain key company check airmen, previously report by FAA inspectors with
the results that the inspectors were disciplined and transferred.)
Denver. Poor crew knowledge and defective reverse procedure, resulting in 16 deaths.
Los Angeles. Boeing 727 crash into ocean after takeoff from Los Angeles.
Previously reported deficiency arising from absence of backup powered flight
instruments and poor knowledge of systems by pilots and flight engineers..
Salt Lake City. Boeing 720 crash with 44 deaths. Due to high
sink rate of captain; poor performance by flight engineer
(previously reported by inspector Stich); poor evacuation of passengers by crew (previously
reported as not in compliance with the law, conducted only every three years
instead of every year, and records falsified). Stich had previously reported
the high sink rate of that same pilot and no corrective action taken; Stich had
previously reported high sink rate of other United Airlines check pilots and
instead of correcting the problem, Stich was ordered removed from the DC-8
program.
[Note, the above are a few of the comments in the initial
closing brief that reflect the pattern of refusal by FAA management to act on
reported unsafe or illegal, or criminal acts, and the retaliation against
federal air safety inspectors when they do so. After this report was made, the
crashes due to these same problems continued for years, and the most recent
consequence of the FAA misconduct occurred on September 11, 2001, as the FAA
refusal to act on inspector reports of the hijacking problems were ignored.]
Years later, showing conditions hadn't changed, former FAA
chief of security, Billie Vincent, wrote in an article appearing in Playboy,
and reprinted in the June 2002 of Business and Commercial Aviation:
"It's a sick organization, and you survive in that
environment by not making any waves. The mediocre survive. They go along to
get along."
Is it any wonder that the FAA failed for 40 years to issue
the simple and inexpensive preventative measures that would have halted the four
groups of 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001. Because of the cover-up of these
deadly problems by every government check and balance (and most of the broadcast
and print media), making them culpable, the public won't be given any
information about this continuing problem.
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Email address for the author and activist against corruption in
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and other personnel to give testimony. Over 4,000 pages of hearing transcript was required to record the testimony and evidence provided. During the hearing, two major fatal airline crashes occurred due to the very same safety problems and safety violations that Stich had repeatedly reported.