The FAA seems to have been extraordinarily busy of late finding incidents of non-compliance with regulations. The result is what seems to be a high number of civil penalties assessed against operators, from airlines to tiny flight schools, for infractions ranging from non-compliance with Airworthiness Directives to flying
a Piper Warrior with a broken cabin door stay. Whether or not the level of FAA enforcement activity has grown is debatable, but what is clear from these actions is that FAA inspectors are scrutinizing the airworthiness of aircraft at what some might consider a microscopic level.
To be sure, airworthiness is clearly defined and thus the unairworthy state is not that hard to determine. But by tacit agreement, the FAA has often turned a blind eye to unairworthiness items that have no relation to safety, such as the aforementioned broken door stay, or else the agency simply has chosen to let those go and focus on more important and fruitful avenues to investigate.
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