Denies Request From Kentucky Office For 14 More Pairs Of Eyes

Despite growing demand for aviation safety oversight, the FAA continues to short-staff its inspector workforce, according to the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS). Most recently, PASS said, overwhelmed inspectors and local management at the Kentucky Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) in Louisville requested that the FAA fill 14 inspector positions. In response, the FAA filled only one of these important positions according to PASS, the union representing FAA safety inspectors and technicians.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is experiencing a tremendous increase in the number of mechanics, aircrew members, aircraft, equipment, major maintenance vendors, and component vendors. This growth dramatically increases the need for safety inspectors, but the FAA has failed to take action, PASS said in a statement to ANN.

"We are seeing this time and time again. In the face of growing demand, the FAA pinches pennies at the cost of air safety and simply refuses to hire an adequate number of inspectors," said Linda Goodrich, PASS regional vice president. "Such a shortage of inspectors is a serious threat to aviation safety and the FAA refuses to take it seriously."

To make matters worse, inspectors at the FSDO are responsible for overseeing five UPS facilities in China in addition to contract vendors for which they are responsible in other countries. Due to a lack of personnel and budgetary constraints, they have not been able to inspect many of these facilities.

"How can the inspectors at the Kentucky FSDO be expected to inspect facilities abroad when they are denied adequate resources to certify aviation safety in Kentucky?" said Goodrich. "Why do we need to wait for an aviation disaster to take place before acting to fix these critical deficiencies?"

Globally, FAA inspectors are responsible for certification, education, oversight and surveillance of approximately 7,000 air operator certificates, 6,000 air agency (repair station) certificates, 240,000 aircraft, 637,000 active pilots, 400,000 non-pilot personnel, 83,000 flight instructors and more than 25,000 designees.

FMI: www.faa.gov/fsdo/lou