Media proffers a Travel Editor as THE expert on regulatory surveillance of aircraft certification.
This post will not follow the ordinary format. Today, it begins with an opinion expressed by the Travel Detective. In response to the recent spate of FAA and industry awful incidents, he was asked to express his opinions on the regulatory surveillance of aircraft certification. The media pronounced him to be an EXPERT; symptomatic of its need to educate the public about high profile issues, the program touted the call to expand the FAA’s work force as THE TRUTH. Failing to find someone who actually knows this arcane subject suggests that the MEDIA’S BIAS to get the NEWS out quickly rather than right.
Please read the NewNation’s broadcast, annotated with the talking head’s own qualification as knowledgeable. Then see where Mr. Greenberg’s recommendation may have missed the mark!!!
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FAA should hire more independent investigators: Travel editor
- Boeing planes have seen number of safety incidents this year
- Travel expert says people more ‘sensitive’ about flying on Boeing jets now
- Peter Greenberg: FAA needs to ‘get its act together’
Updated: MAR 17, 2024 / 12:19 PM CDT
(NewsNation) — Boeing is facing scrutiny, and customers say they’re more reluctant to fly on their jets, after a series of recent incidents in the headlines lately, including when a plane plunged midair on a flight to New Zealand last week.
At least 50 people were treated at the scene for mostly mild injuries, while another 13 were hospitalized. Earlier this year, travelers were alarmed when a door panel blew out of the side of one Boeing plane during an Alaska Airlines flight.
“Well, most of the incidents that have been reported are normal, actually, if you think about the number of operations we’re dealing with,” Travel editor Peter Greenberg said on “Morning in America” Sunday. “131,000 departures, of which there might have been four incidents that were not life-threatening in any way — but they’re being reported more now because we’re so hypersensitive about flying on particular Boeing.”
Still, Greenberg said, that doesn’t take away from THE NEED FOR MORE FEDERAL INSPECTION AND OVERSIGHT, “which is the exact problem that started this thing in the first place.”
“The FAA NEEDS TO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER,” Greenberg said. “They need to hire MORE INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS to do the job that they should have been doing since the since the agency was established back in 1935.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Thoughts about the Travel Detective
Travel Detective Greenberg’s[1] opinion that the FAA needs to “hire more independent investigators” is a prime example of the media’s thirst to present talking heads whose titles and proximate experience seem to denote expertise on the specific and highly technical subject of Aviation Safety[2]. Yes, Mr., Greenberg knows travel and has covered a dramatic accident, for which a flock of birds caused the plane to land in the Hudson, but that experience did not provide the depth of knowledge to comment on the COMPLICATED REGULATORY SURVEILLANCE OF AIRCRAFT AIRWORTHINESS.
Reviewing his comments will demonstrate that the Detective is outside his lane of knowledge:
- “agency was established back in 1935.” History does not even find a point in the Federal Aviation Administration that marks the founding of this Administration. Per the FAA’s history here are its historical milestones:
- In 1934, the Department of Commerce renamed the Aeronautics Branch the Bureau of Air Commerce.
- In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Civil Aeronautics Act establishing the independent Civil Aeronautics Authority.
- In 1958, the President signed the Federal Aviation Act, which transferred the Civil Aeronautics Authority’s functions to a new independent Federal Aviation Agency responsible for civil aviation safety.
- In 1966, Congress established Department of Transportation Concurrently, the Federal Aviation Agency became, the Federal Aviation Administration.
- hire “MORE…INVESTIGATORS.”
Details
o The aircraft certification organization employs 1,400 employees working in FAA Headquarters in Washington, DC, 35 field offices across the U.S., and two international offices. The Certification Offices are located in 10 facilities and the Certificate Management Sections are in 14 cities. Their basic job description is to use the substantial, real time, detailed safety data to assure that the certificates in their jurisdiction are in compliance. THEY COMPLETE MOST OF THEIR WORK FROM THEIR OFFICES—WHICH THEY HAVE DONE SINCE 1958.
- Collectively they are responsible for over6.000 certificates held by 2,000 companies in the US and overseas. These professionals are working on 2,500 open files.
- Some of their work is performed under Congressionally authorized and highly qualified Designees (2,500). The essence of their actions is that they are acting on behalf of the FAA. THEY ARE NOT STATIONED IN THE MANUFACTURING SITES!
- To meet Mr. Greenberg’s call for more investigators, the FAA would have to hire, the Congress to authorize and appropriate, and the taxpayers pay for to watch over all of the projects before them. NEVER HAS THE FAA STATIONED INVESTIGATORS AT ALL OF THE SITES WHERE AIRCRAFT ARE BEING ASSEMBLED HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD.
- NOTA BENE: Aviation Authorities around the world use the FAA’s time-honored regulatory discipline.
- Perhaps Mr. Greenberg’s travel beat can make comments like “INDEPENDENT” in asserting that there is a need for more FAA career employees in that classification. All of the men and women who serve AVIATION SAFETY are independent. There are significant restrictions on their relationships with organizations subject to their scrutiny before, during and after their employment. There are potential criminal sanctions applicable to unethical behavior.
No doubt that aviation safety has faced great challenges. This mess is not unique in the Federal Aviation Administration’s history. For almost 70 years, Administrators, Secretaries of Transportation and Congresses have found appropriate solutions. Adding thousands of investigators now, as Mr. Greenberg demands, is not a wise response to the current crisis (it would take years to hire candidates, initiating new instruction programs so they can inspect all sorts of products [which no country currently uses) and total revamping of their deployment]) The current approach clearly needs revisions to reflect the underlying problems. A well-designed regulatory regimen can be reestablished with steps that really remedy the problem.
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[1] A multiple Emmy-winning investigative reporter and producer, Peter Greenberg is America’s most recognized, honored and respected front-line travel news journalist.
[2] Travel Weekly named Greenberg one of the most influential people in travel, along with Bill Marriott and Sir Richard Branson. He was inducted into the U.S. Travel Association’s Hall of Leaders for his contributions to the travel industry. Among his other honors, Greenberg received a News & Documentary Emmy Award as part of the NBC News Dateline team for outstanding coverage of a breaking news story, “Miracle on the Hudson.”
Greenberg began his career in journalism as West Coast correspondent for Newsweek in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He won a national Emmy Award in Best Investigative Reporting for his ABC 20/20 special on the final orphan flight out of Vietnam, “What Happened to the Children?” He also is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, and an Excellence in Broadcasting Award from the Aviation Space Writers Association of America.
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