Thu, Oct 07, 2004
NASA Shuttle Inspector Indicted
Billy T. Thornton had a
very important job at NASA. He was a quality assurance inspector in
the space agency's shuttle program, in charge of signing off on
structural inspections throughout the shuttle fleet. But in a
166-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, the government says
he often failed to make those inspections and sometimes didn't even
go aboard the spacecraft he was supposed to be inspecting.
Thornton, who lives in Port. St. John (FL) was arrested by
officers with NASA's Inspector General's Office on Monday
night.
The indictment centers on Thornton's inspection of the shuttle
Discovery, the spacecraft that will make NASA's first manned flight
into space since the Columbia tragedy of February 1st, 2003.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports Thornton, 54, is accused
of signing off on 65 inspections of Discovery's interior structure
without even going on board the orbiter. Each of the 65 items was
deemed "criticality one" -- there are no backups for those systems
if they fail in flight. Further, if a "criticality one" part fails,
it could destroy the shuttle and all on board.
"Mr. Thornton has been
a long-standing employee up there and is known as a guy who dots
his i's and crosses his t's. Mr. Thornton considers working on the
shuttle a privilege and an honor, not merely a job to go to every
day."
In addition to rubber-stamping the Discovery inspections,
Thornton is accused of falsifying 83 different inspections from
October 24th, 2002 until May 14th, 2003. NASA fired him. Thornton
now bags groceries and works for a cruise line based at Port
Canaveral (FL).
If convicted, Thornton could be sentenced to a $500,000 fine and
15 years in prison -- for each count.
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