The NTSB issued a scathing indictment of the FAA’s oversight of contract maintenance providers, essentially validating a DOT inspector general’s report that again exposed one of the lesser known practices of the U.S. airline industry. The latest report, made public in late February, again pointed to lax FAA scrutiny of a third-party maintenance contractor as one of the main contributors to the January 2003 crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481. Unfortunately for the 21 people who died in the crash, the regulators’ call to action came too late, once again opening them to criticism for what many consider a highly reactionary and politicized approach to safety oversight.
After all, this wasn’t the first time the NTSB found deficiencies in the FAA’s oversight of maintenance contractors. Less than a year ago the Board cited the FAA’s approval of less frequent lubrication of trim-control jackscrew assemblies as a contributor to the crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 off the coast of California in 2000 that killed 88. Just two years earlier, a Safety Board investigation into the 1996 crash of a ValuJet DC-9 into the Florida Everglades found that lax FAA oversight of contract maintenance firm Sabre-Tech played a role in that accident.
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