New Program To Be Announced In Mid April, Babbitt Tells AEA Convention

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told attendees of the 53rd Annual AEA Convention and Trade Show that the agency is considering a change in some of the traditional ways that companies are "invited" to manufacture equipment. "That theory would be that, instead of telling you the design specs quite accurately of what we want built, we would tell you want we want to receive from the product and let you design and build it."

In a speech webcast live by Aero TV from the convention, Babbitt said there will be a program that will be coming out later this month that will highlight more of that concept. "I think this industry in particular will be very excited about that," Babbitt said. "It's going to give a lot of smaller companies the opportunity to sort of showcase their ability to be innovative and bring out some out-of-the-box thinking."

The remarks came as Babbitt answered questions from attendees at the Orlando trade show following a speech in which he touched on familiar themes: safety and professionalism.

"We're fortunate that nearly everybody in this business knows that safety is the number one priority of the FAA, and we're fortunate that, almost without exception, everybody in this business sees safety as a key component of what they do, and the key to that is professionalism." Babbitt said when asked, his definition of professionalism is "We want people to do the right thing at the right time, and knowing when to do that and when not to do that is key ... when no one else is looking." Babbitt said most pilots do well on their checkrides, but the true measure of professionalism is how they perform when no one else is in the cockpit with them. "Our concern is doing the right thing when you're not being watched, and knowing it," Babbitt said.

When asked about FAA's original mission to be an advocate for the industry, Babbitt admitted that in the past few years, that part of the charter had been given a lower priority. His view, he said, is that by promoting safety and professionalism, he advocates for the industry. Babbitt said that the safety record of the airline industry is very good, with only one major accident resulting in 49 deaths in the past 44 months. "One is too many," Babbitt said, but "we're going to kill 900 people in this country this year at railroad crossings. We going to kill 600 people on foot by train, people that are walking the track. It's unbelievable the focus we get ... We had a terrible tragedy in Washington on the Metro (subway). 9 people died, it was a front-page story in Washington, and it was no story at all. We had a terrible tragedy on the Hudson, where two VFR aircraft collided, it was on You Tube, I had three hearings on the issue ... 9 people. We get so much scrutiny."

Babbitt said he is a vocal promoter of what the FAA does from the safety side, and at the end of the day "I will do what I can to make certain people understand what this industry does, what it contrubutes to the economy."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.aero-news.net/live