Airline Says It Is In Compliance With All Regulations
Gulfstream International Airlines,
Inc. has filed 'a detailed response' to the FAA's findings
from a 2008 inspection and proposed civil penalty. The company
provided documentation that it believes shows that it was in
compliance with the relevant regulations in substantially all of
the findings by the FAA and, thus, asserts there were no violations
in those cases.
The company recognizes, however, that information presented to
the FAA during the 2008 inspection could have been confusing,
resulting in differences in interpretation. To reduce the risk of
future misunderstandings, Gulfstream changed recordkeeping
processes last year even in cases where it disagrees with the FAA
findings. None of the findings, even those with which Gulfstream
concurred, involved safety-of-flight issues.
"We do an outstanding job of running a safe airline for our
customers and employees. The FAA identified several instances where
mistakes had been made, principally in record-keeping, and we have
strengthened our efforts to ensure that our records are not only
accurate, but clear," said Dave Hackett, Gulfstream President and
CEO.
Gulfstream's maintenance program has
been recognized for 12 consecutive years with the FAA's Diamond
Certificate of Excellence, Hackett noted, and it has an excellent
safety record - accident-free for its almost 20 years of
operations.
"While we may respectfully disagree with the FAA's findings of
violations in many cases, we do agree that any error is one too
many. Beginning last summer, we immediately instituted daily flight
record audits for 100 percent of our flights to prevent any future
record-keeping errors," Hackett said.
Of the issues cited by the FAA, Gulfstream:
- Agrees there was one inadvertent scheduling error violation for
one pilot being scheduled for eight consecutive days, one more day
than the allowed seven days, even though he only flew on six
of those days.
- Agrees there were errors involving 10 pilots for discrepancies
between pilot logs and the automated system, none resulting in
pilots flying or being on duty more than allowed.
- Asserts that all other questions about pilot time were the
result of payroll-related record keeping for non-flight, ground
repositioning of aircraft and accordingly, there were no
violations.
- Asserts that no dispatchers were scheduled for more than 10
hours on duty, although some did work longer as allowed by FAA
rules because of operational circumstances beyond Gulfstream's
control.
- Believes the two maintenance practices cited by the FAA were
handled properly and were not violations.
While the company disagrees with the majority of the FAA
findings, there can be no assurance of the outcome of the process
with the FAA or the amount of any penalty ultimately imposed by the
FAA.