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When Allegiant Air’s planes started failing more and more, the FAA

could have cracked down. It didn't. BREAKDOWN OF OVERSIGHT

Nathaniel Lash & Michael LaForgia, TampaBay.com | DEC 16, ,2016

An Allegiant Air MD-83 passes over Ulmerton Road in Largo on its way to land at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.

DOUGLAR R. CLIFFORD | Times (2008)

On Allegiant Air’s worst night last year, mechanical breakdowns forced the airline’s planes to

make one unexpected landing after another.

One flight had to land in Mesa, Ariz., after the captain’s instrument panel started smoking.

Another returned to Las Vegas when the tail compartment overheated. Another circled back to

Mesa because one of its power generators started failing. Another diverted to Idaho Falls when a

fuel pump malfunctioned.

Before the night was finished on June 25, 2015, five Allegiant flights had been interrupted in

four hours, all because different planes had failed in midair.

The Federal Aviation Administration collected records on all of the incidents.

But it didn’t order a single corrective action.

■ ■ ■

In 1996, ValuJet 592 took off from Miami, caught fire and crashed into the Everglades, killing

all 110 people on board.

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After the crash, some federal officials branded the FAA with a harsh nickname.

They called it the “tombstone agency,” and decried it as an unwieldy bureaucracy that was slow

to crack down unless spurred by disaster.

Today, little has changed.

Workers search for debris from ValuJet Flight 592, which crashed into the Everglades on May 11, 1996. AP Photo/Miami Herald (1996)

Again and again in the past 20 years, auditors for the U.S. Department of Transportation have

chronicled the FAA’s struggles to police the airline industry, pointing to staffing problems and a

failure to analyze key data.

The FAA’s dealings with Allegiant Air — a low-cost carrier run by a founder of ValuJet — are a

case study in those struggles.

A Tampa Bay Times review of hundreds of pages of federal records shows that the FAA levied

no fines and took no other enforcement action against Allegiant despite dozens of midair

breakdowns in 2015.

The FAA has broad powers to ensure airlines are operating safely, including the ability to issue

fines, ground air carriers and launch sweeping investigations.

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But the agency took none of those actions in response to Allegiant’s mechanical problems last

year, even as the airline’s planes were breaking down at the highest rate of any major U.S.

carrier.

It didn’t fine Allegiant or subject the airline to stepped-up monitoring after preventable

maintenance errors by Allegiant contractors nearly led to a serious accident in Las Vegas in

August 2015.

A 2014 audit report by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General detailed lapses in the FAA’s oversight of airlines. Federal auditors have documented such problems for years. DOT

And FAA inspectors didn’t even interview a pilot who was fired for ordering the evacuation of a

plane in St. Petersburg in June 2015, even though such firings can be a signal of a corporate

culture in need of scrutiny.

Responding to the Times’ findings, the FAA declined to address any incident specifically.

Instead, an FAA spokeswoman emailed a statement to reporters saying the agency works hard to

ensure air travel is safe.

“U.S. airlines have safely transported more than five billion passengers, two thirds of the world’s

population, over the past eight years without a life lost, and that is no coincidence,” the statement

said. “It is as a result of an unprecedented collaboration between industry, labor and the FAA to

share critical safety data.”

Allegiant officials declined to comment for this story. Late Friday, a lobbyist for Allegiant

emailed Pinellas County leaders a letter from Allegiant CEO Maurice Gallagher Jr. that called

the story an “unsubstantiated attack.”

“The FAA — acknowledged worldwide as the gold standard of aviation safety regulators — is

obligated to ensure airlines within the United States are operating at the highest levels of safety,”

Gallagher wrote. “To that end, the FAA has subjected Allegiant to the extensive oversight it

exercises over all U.S. airlines. Thanks in large part to the efforts of the experts at the FAA, Air

travel, including on Allegiant, is by far the safest mode of transportation. Any insinuations that

the FAA has been negligent in its oversight of Allegiant are patently false.”

But a review of more than 5,000 pages of audit reports by the federal transportation department’s

inspector general showed breakdowns in the FAA’s monitoring of airlines.

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One lesson the FAA drew from the ValuJet crash was that inspectors needed a better way of

keeping tabs on how airlines operate. The agency pledged to use data to focus attention where it

was needed most: on trends within airlines that hinted at possible future safety problems.

The FAA poured more than 15 years and tens of millions of dollars into building such a data

system but never got it to work properly. The agency replaced it two years ago.

Now the agency uses an approach that, according to eight former FAA employees interviewed

for this story, amounts to allowing the airlines to police themselves.

The U.S. airline industry is widely seen as operating one of the safest systems of air travel in the

world. There have been no fatal crashes of U.S. passenger jets since 2009.

But former federal officials interviewed by the Times said the system is pressing its luck by

essentially allowing airlines to self-regulate.

They added that monitoring the politically powerful airline industry is often a frustrating job.

They said it’s fraught with the dangers of angering company executives, who complain to

members of Congress, who complain to FAA administrators, who discourage or even punish

diligent regulators.

“Probably one of the best things going right now is we haven’t had any accidents. And that’s

great for the flying public, but it’s not through anything the FAA has done,” said Edward Jeszka,

a whistleblower who spent 12 years as an FAA inspector. “That’s just the luck of the draw.

Because there have been so many near misses, close calls, engine failures.”

A maintenance crew member works on an Allegiant MD-80’s tail section at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas in October. JAMES BORCHUCK | Times

Lax response

The FAA’s passive approach was on display during a chain of events involving Allegiant in the

past three years.

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In September 2013, FAA inspectors found Allegiant’s maintenance programs were deficient,

among other things.

Records obtained by the Times show the

FAA said it would bar Allegiant from

adding routes, buying new planes or

growing in other ways until the company

corrected the problems.

Allegiant agreed. The FAA took no

enforcement action.

In December 2013, an Allegiant MD-88

went to Oklahoma City for an overhaul

from the airline’s main maintenance

contractor. Before it was finished, a

worker signed off on an engine

inspection without noticing that a key

part — a cotter pin — was missing from

the fuel delivery system.

A day after the plane went back in

service, it took off from Fargo, N.D.,

loaded with passengers. It was in the air

only a few moments before the right

engine, flooded with fuel, started revving

uncontrollably. The pilot had to shut it

down and make an emergency landing

back at the airport.

The contractor, AAR Corp., reported the

mistake to the FAA. The agency allowed

Allegiant and AAR to do their own

review of the incident, records show.

Allegiant promised not to let the offending AAR employee sign off on future Allegiant repairs.

The FAA was satisfied with the company’s response. It issued no fines and took no other

enforcement action against the airline or the contractor.

In May 2015, an Allegiant MD-83 was getting an overhaul by AAR when another worker signed

off on a tail repair. He didn’t notice that, once again, a cotter pin was missing from a rod that

connects the tail to the pilot’s flight controls.

In the course of the next 261 flights, during which the plane carried tens of thousands of

passengers, the tail rod slowly worked its way loose until, on Aug. 17, 2015, it jammed in a steep

climb position as the plane was roaring toward take off in Las Vegas. A hundred and sixty-four

people were on board.

Feeling the nose of the jet pressing up hard, unable to force it back down, the pilots slammed on

the brakes at more than 100 mph.

This photo shows the part of the tail on an Allegiant MD-83 where a rod connects the elevator to the pilot's flight controls. The rod is supposed to be secured in the connecting space by a nut and a cotter pin, but a maintenance error led to the rod working its way free in

August 2015, forcing an aborted takeoff. FAA

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Lori Miller remembers the panic in the cabin as she and the other passengers were pitched

forward in their seats. “People were screaming,” Miller said. “And you could smell something

hot in the cabin. I was thinking, ‘This plane is going to catch on fire, the way it smelled.’ ”

Nobody was hurt. But the captain later reported to a federal aviation safety tracking system that,

“had the aircraft become airborne, a serious accident would have resulted.”

That night, federal records show, an Allegiant manager sent a text message to an FAA inspector

responsible for overseeing the airline, alerting him to the problem.

The FAA and Allegiant both reviewed the plane’s maintenance records and concluded the

contractor was responsible. In response AAR, said it would require an additional inspector to

sign off on repairs of critical parts. Satisfied with AAR’s response, the FAA inspector closed out

the case.

That was the full extent of the federal investigation. The FAA issued no fines and took no other

action.

A spokeswoman for AAR declined to comment for this story. The company still is Allegiant’s

main maintenance contractor today.

The captain of Allegiant Flight 436 made this report to a federal aviation safety tracking system after aborting takeoff in August 2015. NASA

‘A million red flags’

Those weren’t the only examples in recent years of the FAA’s lenient approach.The Times

identified a handful of other incidents that could have prompted action by the FAA but did not.

At least 12 times in 2015, Allegiant had three or more flights end in mechanical breakdowns in a

single week. During a single four-day period in June, the airline had 10 flights end in unexpected

landings caused by mechanical failures.

“That is like a million red flags going up, and nobody doing anything,” said Richard Wyeroski, a

former FAA inspector who turned whistleblower. “The FAA is reactive. They react after the

accident. They don’t stop it.”

The FAA has struggled with turnover in the office that oversees Allegiant for at least the past

three years. But a particular staffing change should have raised a different sort of flag, said Tom

Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based

whistleblower advocate group.

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In May 2015, John Tutora, who had served as interim inspector in charge of monitoring

Allegiant’s maintenance programs, retired from the FAA. Then he immediately went to work for

Allegiant as manager of “regulatory compliance.”

Devine said the situation points to a larger problem with the agency.

He said “revolving door appointments” can lead to inspectors going easy

on the companies they police either because they don’t want to anger

prospective employers or because former colleagues are intervening with

them on the companies’ behalf.

In a phone interview with the Times, Tutora said there was nothing

improper about his hiring. He said he only oversaw Allegiant for about

nine months, while temporarily filling a vacancy left by an inspector who

had retired.

He said that, before retiring, he met with an FAA ethics officer who told

him he was free to work for Allegiant so long as he remained behind the

scenes and didn’t represent the company in dealings with the FAA.

“And that’s what I did. I worked in the background, I never attended any of the meetings with

the FAA, never had an influence or anything like that,” Tutora said. “They didn’t hire me to try

to make deals with anybody or do anything disingenuous.”

He said his job consisted of managing how the company’s maintenance side reacted internally to

requests and communications from the FAA. He added that Allegiant’s maintenance operations

were as sound as any airline’s he had ever come into contact with.

“These guys are passionate in the maintenance and engineering branches about safety, mitigating

risk and not doing anything stupid like cutting corners or doing anything that would possibly

harm the company, or anybody in it, or outside of it,” said Tutora, who retired from Allegiant in

April.

The firing of an Allegiant captain in July 2015 marked another

hands-off moment for the FAA.

Six weeks earlier, Jason Kinzer had been piloting a flight from

St. Petersburg to Hagerstown, Md., when flight attendants

reported smelling smoke in the cabin. He circled back to St.

Petersburg and, believing passengers and crew were

potentially in danger, ordered them off the plane. Eight people

were hurt in the scramble that ensued.

Allegiant fired Kinzer for ordering “an evacuation that was

entirely unwarranted,” according to a copy of the termination

letter obtained by the Times.

“Furthermore, during a review of the event and in subsequent

conversations you have repeatedly insisted that you made a

good decision to evacuate the aircraft, and, if faced with a

similar situation, you would follow the same course of

action,” the letter continued. “It is for these reasons that your

John Tutora retired from the FAA in 2015 and immediately went to work

for Allegiant Air. Courtesy of John Tutora

Pilot Jason Kinzer circled back to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport in June 2015 when flight attendants reported smoke in the cabin. Allegiant fired him for an “unwarranted” evacuation. Kinzer sued, and his lawsuit still is pending in

Nevada. Courtesy of Jason Kinzer

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employment with Allegiant is terminated effective immediately.”

That firing should have drawn FAA scrutiny, said Loretta Alkalay, an aviation attorney who

spent 30 years as a regional counsel prosecuting enforcement cases for the FAA.

She said thorough federal inspectors would have at a minimum interviewed the pilot and his

coworkers.

Kinzer told the Times last month that no one from the FAA has contacted him.

He sued Allegiant over his firing in November 2015. His lawsuit still is pending in Nevada.

Consultant fills void

In April, amid mounting publicity, the FAA began a review of Allegiant’s operations that

originally wasn’t scheduled to happen for another two years.

It gave the airline more than a month’s notice. By the time the FAA began the review, Allegiant

already had tapped a former top FAA official who could help guide them through the process.

Against a backdrop in which the FAA rarely

cracks down, and airlines want to avoid accidents

at all costs, consultants like Nick Sabatini play a

key role in getting airlines to make their

operations safer.

After spending about 18 years as a New York City

police officer, Sabatini joined the FAA in 1978.

He rose to associate administrator for aviation

safety, a top official in charge of regulating

airlines. He was still in that position in 2008,

when a scandal broke involving Sabatini’s section

of the FAA.

A safety inspector monitoring Southwest Airlines

discovered the carrier was operating dozens of planes that were overdue for safety inspections,

including at least one that had a potentially dangerous crack in its fuselage. But when he reported

his findings to his supervisor, the supervisor allowed Southwest to keep the planes flying — even

though the problems were uncorrected.

The inspector turned whistleblower, focusing attention on what he termed Southwest’s

widespread noncompliance with federal rules. The allegations prompted outrage and

congressional hearings.

At the height of the scandal, Sabatini testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure

Committee, saying he was “outraged” at what had occurred. He added that the FAA did not

require safety inspectors to operate in a way that formed excessively close relationships with

airlines.

Three of the committee’s members later alleged that statement was misleading.

He retired less than a year later. But records show he wasn’t out of the aviation business for long.

After retiring as a top FAA administrator, Nick Sabatini started a consulting firm that works with airlines and other

businesses. Getty Images (2008)

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Sabatini, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, incorporated a consulting firm in 2009

and immediately started working for airlines and other businesses that potentially were in trouble

with aviation authorities.

He led a meticulous internal review for Colgan Air after a plane operated by the regional carrier

crashed in February 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y., killing all 49 aboard.

He was called in after an Air France flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil,

killing 228.

The Reno Air Racing Association hired him after a World War II fighter plane crashed into a

crowd gathered at a Nevada air show in 2011, killing 11 and wounding 66.

Nick Sabatini testifies during a congressional hearing in 2008. Getty Images (2008)

In 2013, he went to work for Allegiant Air.

After the FAA inspections that year, Allegiant executives hired Sabatini to review the airline’s

operations.

In an interview, Allegiant’s leaders told the Times he assembled a team of former FAA

employees to study how Allegiant ran its airline.

They said his team reviewed Allegiant’s practices and made suggestions for improving

communication among the company’s departments. He also evaluated its staffing levels and

recommended they invest more money in their operations.

They said he returned in 2015 to check on the company’s progress.

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Then, as the FAA was beginning its latest examination of Allegiant in April, the airline brought

him back.

Allegiant officials declined to describe what Sabatini’s team found during that visit, other than to

say he identified more ways that Allegiant could improve and the company was putting them

into practice.

In his letter Friday to Pinellas County leaders, Gallagher, Allegiant’s CEO, called the FAA

evaluation “an exhaustive, top-to-bottom review and audit of all of our operating procedures and

practices.”

“The report, completed by FAA experts trained for this purpose, speaks for itself,” Gallagher

wrote.

In it, the FAA cited Allegiant only for minor problems.

This story was updated on Dec. 16 to include information from a letter sent by a lobbyist for Allegiant Air to Pinellas County leaders after the story was published online.

Times staff writers William R. Levesque and Anthony Cormier and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Designed by Lyra Solochek and Lauren Flannery. Contact Nathaniel Lash at nlash@tampabay.com. Follow @Nat_Lash. Contact Michael LaForgia at mlaforgia@tampabay.com. Follow @laforgia_.

Copied 5/13/2017 from: http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/investigations/allegiant-air/faa-oversight-breakdown-plane/ (Highlights, footnotes and minor edits may have been added, but only to add analysis & clarification)

57 Comments, as of 5/13/2017:

115 days ago

Brian Romain

I have had dealings with the FAA.You soon find out they think of themselves as a government inside a government.They think they can make up the rules as they see fit!

141 days ago

Ralph

I fly Allegiant Air all the time. Free drinks, free food, choice of seats and 2 free check-in bags on all flights. What's all the bitching about?

139 days ago

Douglas Rodrigues

You've read the article and yet you have no concerns about your safety? Hey, can I take out a life insurance policy on you? That would be a better bet than I could ever make in a Las Vegas Casino.

142 days ago

Rich Wyeroski

BTW ......there is a movement by former FAA inspectors to contact the Trump Administration. We will gladly expose those the made money to cover-up problems and hide facts from the public and Congressional hearings. The FAA Swamp must be drained also.

142 days ago

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Rich Wyeroski

Former FAA Inspectors like myself intend to contact President Trump to investigate FAA corruption. We do our jobs and are forced out of the agency for exposing serious problems in the field. FAA managers that that retire or leave the agency routinely wind up as consultants for airlines and lobby the very agency they us to work for. How unfair and corrupt is it to hide problems and use these former FAA employees to hide real problems. They truly have blood on their hands!

Richard Wyeroski former FAA Operations Inspector GS-13/4

144 days ago

Greg V Alkema

My first impression? The BIG BOYS want to drive Allegiant out of business. It's time to break up the airline monopoly by the BIG carriers.

141 days ago

CleteTorres

Spoken like someone who has either never flown Allegiant, or works for them. Allegiant is easily the absolute worst airline I've ever flown in my near six-decades of flight.

We can fly Allegiant from RFD, which is a 10-minute drive from my home. But because fully SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of the fights we've been on with them have been either delayed, canceled or returned to origination with 'mechanical problems' - one delayed by EIGHT HOURS due to a problem that they had to fly a replacement a/c from LAS to handle, we now make the 2-hour bus ride to MDW and fly Southwest.

It's not an 'if Allegiant crashes' situation, it's definitely a 'how long before Allegiant crashes' scenario. I refuse to play those kind of odds with my or my spouse's life.

146 days ago

William Candee

This is an irrelevant hatchet job. It might have been relevant in 2015, after which Allegiant cleaned up its shop in Florida and underwent a white-glove inspection, which discovered nothing of significance. I thought they needed a good kick then, but not now. Everything you guys say about the FAA process is wrong, and your amateur-investigator conclusions are misguided. Most importantly, bringing up ValuJet is disgraceful and disrespectful to those who died. Go read the CVR transcript. Candy Kubek ran that cockpit absolutely by-the-book, was an exceptional pilot, and handled the emergency in textbook fashion. And there was nothing whatsoever wrong with her aircraft, so mentioning that disaster in the context of an article about maintenance is just plain unprofessional. What WAS wrong is that some nitwits at Sabretech basically sent a firebomb-in-a-box to Atlanta on her flight, and it went up. Just as a similar package being carried by Delta Air Lines did in the same time frame. Delta was simply lucky, after carrying that package on essentially the same kind of aircraft, across the country with a change of planes, that the thing went up on the ramp instead of in the aircraft in flight. This could have been a Delta accident, very easily, but by the hand of God it wasn't. I feel really sad for you that you feel good about this very poor piece of "journalism".

141 days ago

CleteTorres

It's absolutely relevant. They were just in the news again last week.

146 days ago

Tyler Mannison

Allegiant is perfectly safe.

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138 days ago

Greg Marino

Said the Allegiant Travel Company employee!

31 days ago

canyougazip

Well said Greg. I am sure Allegiant employees secretly take either one of their few good planes or travel Jet Blue lol

147 days ago

Greg Marino

LMAO!

Sorry! My "LMAO" is "unfounded"...right Jude Bricker?

Nice "Travel Company" ya' got there pony boys!

147 days ago

Ian Gregor

Here is the FAA's formal response to this story:

A story that ran Friday on the Times website about the FAA’s oversight of Allegiant Air grossly mischaracterizes how the agency’s oversight system functions. The FAA’s oversight system is vastly different from the one that was in place two decades ago. Today’s system focuses on data analysis to detect potential risk, and works to identify potential problems or trends before they result in accidents. It identifies hazards, assesses the risks from those hazards, ensures measures are put in place to mitigate those risks, and monitors those measures to ensure they are effective. These efforts, combined with airline Safety Management Systems and industry-wide voluntary reporting systems, have produced the safety record we enjoy today and have reduced the risk of fatalities in U.S. commercial aviation by 90 percent since 1997. Furthermore, and contrary to what the Times suggested, the FAA investigates every significant event involving U.S.-certificated operators and ensures appropriate measures are taken to address the cause of the event.

147 days ago

Michael LaForgia

We appreciate the FAA's feedback. We presented your agency with a detailed summary of all of our findings on Dec. 6, 10 days before this story was published online, and the FAA declined to address any specific finding. We welcome further elaboration from you. We also stand by the story.

146 days ago

Rob Macarthur

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/more-problems-for-allegiant-airlines

18 flights cancelled, delayed, or diverted this weekend

146 days ago

truly1

That story was actually from March, but still shocking.

146 days ago

canyougazip

In the process of our investment research, we interviewed several former mechanics. This is just one of many. The FAA had no interest in talking to him. Why not? I have several of these interviews.

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I used to schedule a borescope of the 757 engines during AC-Check (2 weeks of downtime). I was taking advantage of the longer downtime in case we found a problem and we could correct the problem or change the engine.I was told to remove the borescopes from the check because they still had usable flight time on them. They did not want to look at the engines any earlier than required. They were afraid they would find a problem and they only have 1 spare 757 engine and would not buy any more. I was told they would park a 757 and use the engines from it. It was just an inspection we were going to accomplish a little early to take advantage of the downtime and I was told to remove it from the check. I knew that finance was running the airline and I decided I needed to look for another job.

146 days ago

canyougazip

That's a very eloquent description; however, it has several flaws. That's a very quantitative way of thinking. You are replacing a common sense person with a computerize system of checks and balances. However, that system is built upon management abiding by the rules, specifically, the self-reporting of incidents. I am not accusing ALGT of lying to the FAA, but what if they are not self-reporting properly. The data is corrupt. The FAA assumes management of an airline is honorable and good. Voluntary systems don't take into account someone or some company that doesn't self-report for fear of reprisal. And I have hundreds of self-reporting to the FAA. For the FAA to say they investigate everything is a joke.

p#23. Inoperative cabin pressure during climb. Just after takeoff pressurization transfer lockout and standby on light illuminated. Cabin was not pressurizing. p#31. Damged right engine.Right engine from upper cowl damaged. p#11. Exhaust smell coming from the cabin/odor, and smoke p#2. Failed horizontal stab. After takeoff primary trim quit working. Returned without incident. Alternate trim worked Ok. Replaced primary long trim actuator motor.Made an unscheduled landing. p#20. Faulty Left engine. On approach left throttle response was very slow compared to the right side. Both packs shut down multiple times due to right engine spooling up faster during all other phases of flight. Affect systems. p#28. Stalled Engine during take

147 days ago

John Addar

Newsflash to Times writers. I know you won't listen to President Elect Trump but he has spoken about one of the issues. Government employees who monitor or give contracts to civilian companies will be stopped from being hired by that company. In Trumps business world, it is called a non-compete.

147 days ago

Brian Moore

consumers have this idea that the FAA exists to crack down and police the airlines. Not exactly the FAA provvides an umbrella of protection for airlines to do business under. they generate rules and if the airlines follow them they are considered safe. if you dont pass you arent shut down you get plenty of leeway to comply. makes us all feel safer though doesnt it?

until a crash then there is a review and some new rules get writ and we all feel safe again

see how it works?

147 days ago

Boppy

Have no fear. Trump is here. He'll fix the FAA. LOL

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147 days ago

Tom Kulaga

Do you recall that Allegiant's problems stopped the minute the new Union contract was ratified? Also this article may be a paid political announcement. Allegiant Air's routes are well planned to service people that need to fly where the biggies out of TIA stopped going or now are part of several stops.

147 days ago

Greg Marino

No they didn't! Where did you get that information? The media?

139 days ago

Douglas Rodrigues

What do flight routes have to do with system failures and improperly performed maintenance?

147 days ago

DL Harding

For me about this story, I'm stuck on the cotter pins. Get off the effing phone, and do your job, no matter what it is, because when you are busting sunshine with your new beastie girl or boy last night, and you can't quit lovin all over each other, or you just found your boy or girl trashin' with your boo or bestie, and you forgot to put in that cotter ring, or that clip, or that seal or that whatever, people die. Get off of the phone, but it down at work, and focus on your work. Lives count on you being there, with your mind and body.

148 days ago

jpaul18535

Not sure what it is but the St. Pete/TB Times sure seem to have it out for Allegiant Air.

147 days ago

Greg Marino

Another ma-roon heard from. per THIS clown, it's now all about "Fascism" instead of the core facts about safety in commercial aviation?

147 days ago

Greg Marino

Why< Too much TRUTH about this "Travel Company?" You "can't handle the truth" or afraid to look just slightly beyond the tip of your nose for the FACTS? Whatta' ma-roon!

146 days ago

canyougazip

I agree with you Greg. Here is a quote from ALGT ex-mechanic on FAA compliance... or lack thereof...

They want to accomplish the minimum maintenance that the FAA will let them get away with. They have a high turnover of mechanics and not a very good training program. If you go to the company website and look at the employment page, you will usually find over 100 jobs available. Please go and check the jobs that are open and it will confirm your research. (Ten percent of the company’s jobs are mechanics; however, the web site listed 20% of the total jobs as openings for mechanics.)

148 days ago

lutesgre

Seems that what was once an award winning team of journalists has digressed. On the one hand we have individual reporter's lack of objectivity, of not fairly researching for an honest report. In fact

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seems that they decided to create the story before it was written - can't believe the hack job relating this to ValuJet - good grief! But even worse, this passed across the editor's desk, so fault goes to the top. Come on TBT - history says you are better than this.

139 days ago

Douglas Rodrigues

Do you imply that the system failures and especially that elevator control rod coming loose is a lie?

148 days ago

Andrew Kane

The FAA on many occasions have found pilot error was the cause of crashes, which a lot are ,but too many aren't. It is of the FAA of trying to protect the aircraft builders or the airlines themselves.

With all the discount air fares, airlines have to cut costs somewhere, and it's usually in the maintenance area. Airlines are pushing the envelope, when it comes to maintenance. As in government, business feels that it's cheaper to play out lawsuit money than fix the problem before it happens.

148 days ago

canyougazip

well said. Are you a mechanic? I am researching, and would appreciate your input on few questions that I have. Can you please email me at laksg@altresearch.com?

139 days ago

Douglas Rodrigues

I was an airplane mechanic for a short while, but disgust convinced me to find another career. I.e., when a supervisor tells you to not replace an aileron actuator worn beyond specifications, but to simply install new packings (O-rings), I wanted no part of it. That was 37 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. "Supervisors" who save the company money are looked upon favorably by management. After all, who would be the wiser if a part failed, right?

148 days ago

flpilot

Discount airlines have lower costs primarily due to non-union labor contracts, and due to lower aircraft acquisition costs from buying used aircraft rather than new. As a result the discount airlines actually spend more on maintenance than the major airlines that have newer fleets. There is no business incentive for any airline to sacrifice safety, as any kind of at-fault accident would be the immediate end of the airline. Even when an accident isn't the fault of the airline, as in the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Everglades, for which ValuJet was not at fault at all, still resulted in the nameplate being sullied and it forced ValuJet to enter into a merger with AirTran, now Southwest Airlines.

148 days ago

Nathan Bauer

Very interesting response. Makes total sense.

147 days ago

Todd Bridges

Sounds good and makes sense, but at ground level, as a long time wrench, I can tell you, cheap airlines are just cheap airlines.

I worked at a third party MRO as contract labor on Valuejet and others. Quality and integrity in the business has only gone in one direction. Lawyers and bean counters run the biz these days.

16

Safety is our top priority so easy to say, that all say it.

Fewer and fewer ever really considered what it entailed.

We live in the age of salemenship and jargon.

Many airlines send their maintenence to third world outfits.

They will assure all and any of their dedication to safety.

I've worked with those boys both at home and abroad.

Scary.

148 days ago

Nathan Bauer

Wrong. The FAA doesn't investigate crashes. The NTSB does, and they make the official determine as to cause. The recommend changes to the FAA, who has the authority to implement change.

148 days ago

Tom Rask

It seems that the Times is saying that relying on the government for anything is a sucker's bet. Thankfully, I already knew that. I make my own decision as to whether to fly Allegiant, which is a separate decision from whether I would put my wife and kids on one of their flights.

The reporters fail to mention that the rate of in-flight incidents for Allegiant in 2016 is down about 60%, and on par with major airlines. The Times staff know this because they have themselves reported on it. I'm disappointed in the reporters for not mentioning that 2016 data.

As far as I know, there have been 3 fatalities this decade in the US in commercial passenger aviation. In other words, the industry is doing a pretty good job. From 1962 to 1071, 133 out of every 100 million passengers died (excluding acts of terrorism). Now we are down to way below 1 out of every 100 million passengers.

148 days ago

flpilot

Actually, just zero fatalities from US airlines in the last six straight years. The only fatalities in commercial airlines in the US in that time occurred in a Korean Airlines accident, and that was due to pilot error, nothing to do whatsoever with the aircraft itself.

148 days ago

Tom Rask

Not to nitpick, but for clarity for other readers: the crash you are referring to was Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (so not Korean Air Lines, a.k.a Korean Air) that crashed at SFO in 2013. The FAA has jurisdiction over any airline that lands in the US, so in my view, we don't just count deaths involving US carriers.

Also, the number of fatalities "in commercial airlines" is not zero over the last 6 years. For example, a UPS plane crashed in Birmingham, AL a few years ago and both pilots died.. I think you meant to say zero deaths in "commercial PASSENGER aviation".

147 days ago

flpilot

OK, I stand corrected on the airline name, but it was still a Korean airline with Korean air crews, and the accident had nothing to do with the airline equipment.

The FAA does not directly regulate foreign airlines but rather relies on the home nation aviation authority to enforce maintenance work that is not performed on US soil. The FAA does require that

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American Federal Aviation Rules or their foreign national equivalent be complied with in order to do business in the USA.

Yes I am referring to the commercial airlines not to cargo transport. The context of this article and the discussion is entirely about commercial passenger airline safety, not about the safety of other types of aviation.

147 days ago

flpilot

In other words, you're nitpicking in order to make no point at all. I incorrectly capitalized "Airline", and meant to write "Korean airline", which is correct.

148 days ago

flpilot

This article was premised on an accident that was not the fault of the airline - the crash into the Everglades in 1006 was the result of an onboard fire caused by mislabeling and mishandling of hazardous air cargo, not by the fault of the airline involved. That tells us all we need to know of the intentional misleading premise of this article.

It is NOT the job of the FAA to serve as the quality control authority for the private airlines. The actual safety record of US Airlines has been as good at it can possibly be - zero fatalities in the last six years. The combination of the airlines and their employees and contractors, with limited oversight by the FAA, produced a great result.

146 days ago

canyougazip

I wrote a letter to the FAA complaining about ALGT. Here is a section of the letter that was written back to me in April 2016.

"The FAA is aware of the incidents and concerns you mentioned. We are actively engaged in ensuring that Allegiant meets its statutory obligation to operate at the highest possible degree of safety. To that end, the agency has conducted a number of evaluations and audits in addition to its regular safety oversight work. These include a National Certificate Holder Evaluation Process that started on April 1 and continued through June.

This work will continue, but I am happy to report that Allegiant executives and 14 CFR Part 119 management officials have demonstrated willingness and ability to engage in open dialogue with FAA officials at all levels."

148 days ago

lutesgre

No airline has a perfect mechanical record and for comparison here is my experience: I live in SC fly almost every week for work on either Delta and American for a total of 128 flights this past year and have expericed several mechanical incidents with both - averging a rate of 12% on all flights with American being worse than Delta. My family and I use Allegiant to visit family in FL for a total of 42 flights over the past couple years with no mechanical related incident. So where is the objectivity? I believe this is the third Times story I have read about in this subject in the past year and also a using some of the same items? A more objective journalistic story that we can benefit from is if the Times takes more of an interest and effort to examine every airline operating in the Tampa Bay area - that might be worth reading.

148 days ago

thebull

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Delta is an international airline with long hauls to almost every major country on earth. So is American.

The stats don't agree with you-Allegiant has a much higher failure rate. See their prior article about Allegiant. Besides, Delta doesn't try to slither out of responsibility for their mistakes-they fix them. Allegiant does, and they have a CEO who oversaw ValuJet, which has since been shut down. With Allegiant, at some point the pilot will not be able to make up for the various and sundry mechanical errors.

148 days ago

lutesgre

I fly short haul domestic on Delta and American and this is the case with incidident rate - especially with their older MD88's on mainline and for their regional feeders, the RJ145 and CRJ200 that they are both acccountable for. The point of my comment is not intended to bash Delta and American, but contrastimg the article with realtiy. So again, it is not not good jounalism when taking aim and not appropriately comparing. For those who do not fly often and do not know about other operations, articles like this are not helpful...Also I don't know what Valujet has to do with this - that plane went down due to the ignitition of carried cargo - an oxygen generator. These were persmissable cargo types until that happened and then banned since then.

148 days ago

Nathan Bauer

Again, the article is talking about Allegiant's issues for ALL their flights. Your statistics were based on your own personal flights on Allegiant, Delta, and American. Sucks that Delta and American have problems when you fly at a higher rate than their overall average. But just because you personally have experienced more problems on these two versus Allegiant in now way makes Allegiant more reliable, and has no basis on the premise of this article.

148 days ago

flpilot

ValuJet was not at fault in the Everglades accident, and it later merged with AirTran, which later merged with Southwest Airlines.

147 days ago

flpilot

So an idiot here down-voted a 100% correct factual statement. Go ahead and look it up. I guess the idiot down-voter really does think he or she is entitled to their own facts, and not just their own opinions. The era of post-factualism, apparently.

148 days ago

Nathan Bauer

So those stats are your own PERSONAL stats, not all three airlines' overall issues.

148 days ago

Max42

President Obama has controlled, to the extent they can be controlled, those agencies for the past 8 years. You comment about the GOP is baseless.

148 days ago

flpilot

Government looks out for the interests of government and those who control the government.

19

No human can be totally trusted. All humans are subject to errors and to corruption.

148 days ago

James Dee

The bloated bureaucracy that is Washington, DC only got bigger and even less effective under Obama. No one has gotten fired for anything since he took over. Obama has been a complete failure and his 'legacy' will reflect that very, very soon. He will keep his legacy just like we kept our doctors and healthplans.

148 days ago

Max42

The FAA, like the VA, is part of the federal bureaucracy, and reports to the Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, appointed by President Obama in June of 2013. The federal bureaucracy has become the 4th Branch of government, the largest and most powerful, because it is accountable to no one. At the top are elected and appointed politicians, in the middle are career bureaucrat managers, overseeing the massive unionized federal workforce. For the FAA and VA, both investigated by the Times, to reform and become more accountable, the entire federal bureaucracy must be restructured.