FAA Proposes $44,000 Fine

FAA investigators claim to have compiled an inch-thick file on a 1999 complaint about a burned-out bulb in a "no smoking, fasten seat belt" sign onboard a Comair jet.

The accumulating paper shuffle ended only after the airline paid a $3,000 fine to settle the complaint, the Gannett News Service reported on Monday.

The hearing in Federal Aviation Administration v. Comair was to start Thursday; four years after the case began. The agency's beef against Comair: A burnt-out light bulb, worth 77 cents, in a no smoking-fasten seat belt sign. The FAA's proposed fine: $44,000.

According to documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by Gannett, the problem started Sept. 17, 1999, on a flight from Long Island to Cincinnati. An off-duty FAA inspector was on the flight and noticed that the first-row "no smoking" sign wasn't working. She reported it to a flight attendant, who then reported the issue to the Captain, who did not immediately log the burnt-out bulb so maintenance crews could fix it.

The bulb was replaced two days later. But Comair flew the plane four times with the light out, violating three separate FAA regulations, since the FAA case summary claimed the jet was "not in an airworthy condition,"

In April 2003, the FAA announced its proposed fine: $11,000 for each trip, $44,000 total.

"It's not simply the fact the light was out, but the follow-up actions required were not taken," an FAA spokesperson told the news service.

Comair appealed the fine to the Department of Transportation. By Nov. 13, the two sides had settled with Comair paying a $3,000 fine. Light-bulb violations don't come up often, said Douglas Burdette, an aviation safety inspector at the FAA office in Oklahoma City that handles violation data.

But even he acknowledged: "That seems like a pretty heavy penalty."

FMI:  www.comair.com