FAA TO ABANDON PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE, CERTIFICATION, OPTING for REACTIVE APPROACH
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- Published: July 18, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC—Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO, today announced opposition to the recommendations of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) reorganization plan. PASS’s concerns focus primarily on the safety implications of abandoning a preventive approach to maintenance and certification in favor of a reactive model where employees would only take action when a problem occurs.
On March 1, 2005, the FAA is expected to announce its design plan for reorganizing the ATO. PASS recently pulled out of the design plan meetings, saying that the FAA’s unwillingness to consider any alternative solutions to the specific problems faced by the agency made it impossible to continue to participate.
“They simply were not listening,” said PASS National President Tom Brantley. “We presented a variety of viable options that met the stated goals of the reorganization, but the FAA disregarded them without serious consideration and opted for a plan that gives the appearance of reorganization in response to administration efforts to slash funding for personnel.”
The implementation of the FAA plan, in its current form, will affect the safety and integrity of the National Airspace System (NAS). Adopting a “Reliability Centered Maintenance” philosophy would cause the physical degradation of equipment and facilities vital to safe air travel. “Reliability Centered Maintenance basically means, ‘don’t touch it until it breaks,’” said Brantley.
Further, the FAA is proposing to reduce the maintenance workforce by two percent per year for the next five years, representing close to 1,000 jobs. These staffing reductions will lengthen response times to crises since technicians will often be hundreds of miles away from the site of the problem.
“We have the safest aviation system in the world, so why should we start to cut corners when it comes to vital functions like maintenance and certification,” said Brantley. “The FAA's plan is dangerous and reckless in addition to being wasteful and ineffective.
“This is not just about job loss, it’s about the safety of the flying public,” continued Brantley. “We recognize almost all federal agencies are facing budget cuts, but should we ignore common sense and abandon preventive maintenance and certification of critical aviation equipment? Why put at risk the safest aviation system in the world?”
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PASS represents more than 11,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense who install, maintain, support and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment, inspect and oversee the commercial and general aviation industries, develop flight procedures and perform quality analyses of the aviation systems. For more information, visit the PASS website at www.passnational.org.