Expert Analysts Scrutinized the FAA’s Oversight of ATC Organization

In a move that appears somewhat mistimed (at best…tone-deaf at worst), the Federal Aviation Administration has quietly halted the work of an independent panel of experts who were assigned to evaluate the agency’s oversight of air traffic control operations.

The decision trails just behind a very public midair collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) that killed 67 people and raised urgent questions about the FAA’s ability to manage safety in the skies.

The panel, which included prominent figures such as the former head of NASA and a past chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, had been asked by then-Administrator Mike Whitaker to examine potential conflicts of interest in the agency’s structure. The US stands out in this sense, allowing the same federal agency that hires and manages air traffic controllers to also regulate and evaluate their safety performance.

This arrangement has been a long-standing point of criticism, especially with the major staff imbalance. The FAA’s Air Traffic Safety Oversight Office, responsible for monitoring the massive system, has just over 130 employees overseeing an operation of more than 35,000 workers.

The timing of the suspension is hard to ignore. Investigators are currently reviewing all aspects of the major DCA crash on January 29, including whether Reagan National Airport’s tower was properly staffed that night. Despite this, in February, the FAA paused the panel’s work. By March 10, members were told to stop all work immediately and make no further commitments. The FAA offered no explanation beyond saying the work was “paused,” not canceled, for the time being.

Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, called the decision “senseless.” With the US airspace getting consistently more crowded, and the FAA still running around headless, she argues that the agency should have “more rigorous safety oversight, not less.”

If the goal was to look confident, muzzling a well-respected group of independent reviewers without warning likely wasn’t the best way to go about it.

FMI: www.faa.gov