Watchdog Faults FAA’s Oversight of United’s Maintenance Practices
……..Investigators pointed to low staffing levels and inadequate resources.
The FAA’s oversight of United’s maintenance operations is being undermined by inadequate staffing levels, a lack of resources, and ineffective workplace planning, federal watchdog agency reported
The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General said it began looking into the FAA’s supervision of United after several concerning in-flight incidents, including engine failures and emergency landings.
The office has investigated federal oversight of several other carriers in recent years, including American, Allegiant, and Southwest.
The OIG’s final report on the FAA and United, made public , said the certificate management office responsible for United does not have enough inspectors. The situation has increased workloads, the office said, and is contributing to high turnover.
The OIG faulted the FAA for relying on virtual inspections when it does not have sufficient staffing, rather than postponing the inspections in accordance with the FAA’s own requirements. In addition, inspections conducted without adequate resources are not being appropriately factored into the FAA’s and United’s risk profile.
Extended job vacancies at the CMO are also delaying inspections and making it more difficult to retain valuable institutional knowledge, investigators said.
“As a result of these unfilled positions, the CMO has been unable to complete all its required essential maintenance provider (i.e., repair stations) inspections,” the report stated. “Our analysis of required inspections at United’s 22 domestic and international essential maintenance providers showed that the CMO was unable to complete 8 of 22 (36%) inspections in fiscal year 2023 and 13 of 22 (59%) inspections in fiscal year 2024.”
The report called particular attention to supervision of United’s Boeing 737 fleet. The FAA has only one avionics partial program manager, one maintenance partial program manager, and two assistant partial program managers overseeing 521 737 aircraft, according to the OIG, which is in line with the FAA’s rules but “not sufficient to accomplish all required surveillance on the B737.”
The imbalance is especially concerning because, according to CMO managers, the 737s have the most unplanned events and are “very different than other aircraft series, especially in terms of avionics.”
SMS Access
The OIG also found that the FAA has not effectively educated inspectors on how to access, obtain, and manage carriers’ safety management system data. This prevents inspectors from properly assessing a carrier’s SMS and determining the root causes of maintenance problems, investigators said.
Airlines are reluctant to provide access to SMS records because they are not categorically protected from Freedom of Information Act requests, the report stated, but FAA inspectors are allowed to request and review them provided certain conditions are met.
Additionally, FAA regulations allow carriers to mark SMS data as confidential, indicating that it should be withheld from public disclosure.
FAA personnel reported some difficulty accessing United’s SMS data and were apparently not aware of their ability to request and review that information.
“Inspectors stated that they encounter challenges requesting and obtaining United’s SMS data, including safety risk assessments, making it difficult to oversee United’s SMS,” investigators wrote. “FAA inspectors we interviewed stated that United does not allow remote access to the air carrier’s SMS records but will hold virtual meetings and show snippets of the air carrier’s SMS where inspectors can take notes. However, photos and screenshots are not allowed.”
“Additionally, FAA inspectors stated that they can go to a United facility to view the air carrier’s SMS with supervision from United personnel but cannot take SMS records away.”
The OIG recommended that the FAA develop and implement a policy for personnel to determine when an inspection should be postponed; reevaluate staffing rules by taking fleet size and requirements into account; arrange an independent workplace survey of the United CMO to determine how inspector fleet assignments and workload distribution are impacting office culture; establish and implement an action plan to address staffing shortages; develop a plan to provide outreach and education to the entire inspector workforce on the protections of SMS data; and provide analytical support from its Safety Analysis Branch to CMOs to gather, analyze, and trend data for inspection questions that have been answered “not observable.”
In its reply, the FAA said it concurred wholly or partially with all of the recommendations. The agency said it will complete actions to address the recommendations by Dec. 31 of this year.
