Yesterday I wrote about the USA's
Federal Aviation Authority (F.A.A.) asking the question “Can we be
Confident?”

See:
http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/the-editor-speaks-can-we-be-confident-in-the-f-a-a/

I have received a comment from a reader
referring me to an article published nearly EIGHT years ago.

I make no apologies for republishing it
in full below and wondering why on earth things are exactly the
same.? We are dealing here with people's lives! Forget the
investigations going on re Donald Trump. This is far more serious.

May 29th, 2011 by Scott Bloch

FAA Culture of Cover Up Put Air
Traffic Controllers to Sleep

From Law Offices of Scott J. Bloch

G.K. Chesterton said, “If a thing is
worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” This famous witticism turns
out too often to be a guiding principle for government oversight.
Americans are tired and frustrated. We sense that there is too much
money and corruption in our government. We’re tired of
compromise in aviation safety by the Federal Aviation Administration.
We now learn from the Transportation Department Inspector General
that near misses are up over fifty percent.

You know there is something wrong when
every week for a month controllers are being caught falling asleep on
the job, watching movies, or bringing the First Lady’s airplane up
close and personal with the flying public. And more recently the
Second Lady’s plane was on a crash course with another plane out of
Chicago O’Hare airport. Somebody is going to pay. Only it will
not be the FAA. They’ll find a suitable scapegoat. And if anyone
speaks up, he will be fired or retaliated against.

Over and over, when the FAA is caught
asleep at the wheel, those in charge rattle their sabers, fire low
level individuals and allow the management that refuses to play by
the rules to stay in power. Soon it all slouches back into a comfy
system because the FAA does not like oversight, does not tolerate
whistleblowers, and will say whatever it takes for the cameras to
stop rolling and the members of Congress to stop having hearings. I
know because I shined the light on FAA malfeasance and cover up for
five years when I headed the independent oversight agency United
States Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

In several rounds of near-misses of
aircraft, Air Traffic Controller Anne Whiteman learned that blowing
the whistle on FAA malfeasance did not pay. She was proved right in
two separate investigations by my office, one in 2005 (featured on
Oprah show), one in 2007 with a second whistleblower in her control
facility. During that round, she revealed cover ups of serious near
misses, including controllers playing chicken with planes, and the
FAA lying about fixing the problem. In the second round, FAA tried
to shift blame to pilots in order to cover up safety violations and
keep those safety numbers from edging up. After the Inspector
General and press revealed the seriousness of the cover ups, the FAA
swore it had taken care of the problems, the wrongdoers, and would no
longer cover up near misses and incidents that endangered passengers.
But they hadn’t.

Anne Whiteman was retaliated against so
often she felt she had to retire. Threats to her life, removal of
privileges of employment, attempts to find dirt on her, and
harassment by management and rank and file alike took their toll.
Now the third round is upon us, and we are seeing no sign that the
house cleans itself. OSC also experienced several rounds with FAA on
cover up of fraudulent mechanics certificates for FAA safety
mechanics. In that case, the whistleblower experienced retaliation
as well.

Witness another example of a repeat
problem in the grounding a month ago of some 300 scheduled flights,
and hundreds of aircraft due to the five-foot fuselage hole and
depressurization of the Southwest Airlines flight 812 in Yuma,
Arizona. We brought these problems to light in 2007 and in 2008,
Congressional hearings, OSC’s investigation, and Inspector
General’s findings showed a cover up of the structural fatigue
cracks in the ageing Boeing 737-300, 700 and other 737 series. Our
whistleblowers, like Anne Whiteman, came forward and revealed a wide
scale cover up of FAA and Southwest Airlines refusing to comply with
Airworthiness Directives (ADs) requiring regular inspections of the
fuselage of these Boeing 737s for just the type of holes or cracks
that appeared in the recent depressurization of flight 812.

Whistleblowers Bobby Boutris and Doug
Peters reported to OSC that they as FAA maintenance inspectors were
being stopped from enforcing this AD by FAA management under the
so-called partnership program with the airlines. We found a
violation of the AD and retaliation against Boutris and Peters for
their efforts to uphold this important safety regulation. There was
a revolving door problem of FAA safety inspectors being invited into
cushier jobs with the very airlines they were supposed to oversee.
We referred the case to the Inspector General of the Department of
Transportation, Calvin Scovell III, for fuller investigation and
correction of the problems, which he confirmed had occurred. Massive
attention was paid, a high level FAA executive had to leave his job,
1000 planes were grounded, a whole fleet of Boeing 737s were
mothballed, and still Southwest and other Airlines were allowed to
let slide these dangers.

I found that powerful interests in
government don’t like oversight one bit, and they retaliate and
come after you. Is this the kind of oversight and aviation industry
we want in America? Consider that in the face of ongoing problems
with structural fatigue in the old 737, and in Boeing’s Next
Generation or NG 737, which is also facing non-conforming parts
creating the very same structural integrity problems in the news. So
did the FAA or Inspector General of the Transportation Department
look into this? Not at all. FAA has gone into business with Boeing
to develop the Next Gen or NG warning system and, so far, has tried
to sweep the 737 NG structural problems under the rug. FAA is paying
Boeing billions to develop and implement this NG system. Is this
what America expects of its public officials, to get in bed with
Boeing or other large aviation interests?

John Adams said, “Good government is
an empire of laws.” But what happens when officials won’t
enforce those laws? We, the citizens, have to join with vigorous
representatives who are not merely beholden to lobbyists or industry.
They have tried to silence the whistleblowers, silence their
critics. But their voices will be heard. That is if weren’t not
asleep at the switch.

Hon. Scott J. Bloch was Special Counsel
over the U.S. Office of Special Counsel from December of 2003 until
December of 2008 and now practices law on behalf of aviation and
other whistleblowers, injured government contractors, and private and
public employees, in Washington, D.C.

SOURCE:
https://www.dcresultslawyers.com/2011/05/29/faa-culture-of-cover-up-causes-repeat-mistakes/