FAA employees who oversee airplane makers report pressure

Federal employees overseeing Boeing and other aircraft makers say they face pressure from the companies and fear retribution from their own bosses if they raise too many safety concerns, according to a survey of the workers that was delivered to Congress on Friday.

Many of the Federal Aviation Administration employees surveyed said they believe that agency managers are too concerned with the industry’s objectives and aren’t held accountable for decisions about safety.

One FAA employee said companies will say they will lose money if the FAA doesn’t certify its plane fast enough. Another said the message to FAA workers is, “’Don’t rock the boat’ with Boeing.”

The summary and comments were contained in a private company’s report, dated in February, on the safety culture at the FAA. The FAA faces scrutiny from Congress over its approval of the Boeing 737 Max, which remains grounded after two deadly crashes less than five months apart.

The report reflects “a disturbing pattern of senior officials at a Federal agency rolling over for industry,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation Committee. “That’s especially disturbing to see when it comes to Boeing, which, as we know now, pushed a plane through a broken regulatory process that resulted in the deaths of 346 innocent people.”

FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said the report shows “that we have work to do to address problems” in the safety culture within the agency’s aviation safety organization. “It is completely unacceptable that there are employees who lack confidence that their safety concerns are taken seriously.”