Claims Agency Attempted To Quiet Questions, Cover Up
Problems
Gabe Bruno served with
the Federal Aviation Administration for 29 years before retiring in
January 2006 from the FAA Southern Region office in Florida. A
simple look at the number of years he worked with the FAA might
lead one to believe that the retirement was on his own terms... but
a recent report claims that Bruno was coerced into retirement after
he questioned the priorities of his office and the administration
as a whole.
In his leadership role at FAA Southern Region, Bruno was
responsible for oversight of the ValuJet-AirTran merger in the
years following the 1996 ValuJet crash near Miami. The National
Transportation Safety Board and the FAA's own "90 Day Safety
Review" found the lack of FAA oversight was one of the accident's
contributing factors. As a result, he attempted to implement
necessary oversight to prevent recurrence of the tragedy during his
leadership.
Referencing a report made by the Government Accountability
Project (GAP), Mr. Bruno stated that he fought for several years in
attempts to get the necessary personnel to perform proper
inspection of the growing airline. After these attempts failed, Mr.
Bruno expressed his concerns directly in a meeting with his two
immediate supervisors in May 2001. Their response was to initiate a
"security investigation" and reassign Mr. Bruno from his management
position.
In a report this past week by WKMG-6 in Orlando, Bruno claims
this reassignment seriously jeopardized air safety in the region.
According to the report, he says not only FAA coziness with big
airlines and a lack of effective maintenance oversight are to
blame, but also improperly trained mechanics stemming from the
cancellation of a mechanic retesting program he instituted.
The retesting program was a result of the discovery of improper
mechanic training by Anthony St. George, an FAA-contracted
Designated Mechanic Examiner and St. George Aviation operating at
Sanford-Orlando International Airport. In January 1999, St. George
was arrested and subsequently convicted on federal charges for
charging students a negotiated rate for fraudulent certification of
the students as Airframe and Powerplant mechanics without proper
testing. He was subsequently sent to prison for the charges.
The report claims Bruno insisted the FAA locate and retest over
2,000 mechanics who were trained by the school. Effectiveness of
the retest program was clearly seen as it resulted in 75% of St.
George-certified mechanics failing certification standards when
subjected to official tests.
Bruno claims that cancellation of the program after his 2001
meeting with his superiors left over 1,000 mechanics with
fraudulently obtained credentials throughout the industry,
including major airlines.
According to the GAP
report, Mr. Bruno filed an official whistleblower disclosure with
the Office of Special Council (OSC) in June 2002, citing both the
oversight problems with AirTran and the cancellation of the
reexamination program.
Immediately following the disclosure, a lengthy fight ensued and
Bruno endured nine months without pay. The FAA offered a settlement
agreement to Bruno that included reduced pay and loss of his
management position. Faced with no other hope or recourse, he
accepted the agreement.
The final OSC resolution in June 2005 to the disclosure filed by
Bruno confirmed that mistakes were made by the FAA, but found no
intentional wrongdoing and did not require the agency to change its
practices. The OSC-endorsed solution to the whistleblowers
complaint was a retesting program consisting only of an oral and
written examination for the identified mechanics. The retest
neglected the practical, hands-on exam found in traditional FAA
mechanic examinations. The GAP report claims that such a concession
decriminalizes the same scenario -- incomplete testing -- that
previously led to prison time for Anthony St. George.
The revised FAA reexamination program was scheduled to conclude
in December 2005.
WKMG reports Bruno is still fighting the actions of the FAA in
the matter by testifying to Congress and assisting an investigation
into whether the agency is still tracking down the inadequately
trained mechanics.
"I'm trying to do this to do the best I can do to bring
corrective actions about and to try to hopefully get the FAA in the
place where it needs to be," Bruno said.