REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

FAA SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C.

APRIL 18, 2008
2 PM


Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming, and thank you, Bobby, for that introduction and for your strong leadership and fierce dedication to the safety of our aviation system.

Acting Administrator Sturgell and I just met with the senior leadership of the Federal Aviation Administration. We talked about how by virtually every measure flying today is safer than it has ever been.

The men and women of this agency share much of the credit for the significant improvement in aviation safety this country has experienced over the last decade. Thanks to their hard work, we have the most sophisticated and fundamentally sound approach to aviation safety of any country in the world.

We also talked about the doubts that have been raised because of the unacceptable actions of a few. And we all expressed our concern and sympathy for the frustrations and inconveniences that too many travelers have experienced over the past few weeks.

The mark of an effective safety system is the ability to constantly improve and adapt. The people of this agency understand that well and have crafted an approach to aviation safety that is constantly evolving and ever improving.

Today we are announcing new measures designed to improve upon an already impressive safety system. These steps will help make inspectors and managers even more accountable, keep airlines focused on safety, and minimize disruptions for travelers.

The FAA will begin implementing a new program to track the inspections being conducted by its field offices. This program is designed to alert local, regional and D.C.-based FAA personnel when an inspection is overdue.
In addition, the FAA is establishing a new national safety inspection review team. Its job will be to place extra focus on the areas of the system where the data tells us problems are most likely to occur.

And I have asked Bobby to make sure that higher-level FAA officials are held accountable for accepting the voluntary disclosures from airlines of safety or maintenance issues. So we are going to have senior officials within our field offices sign off on voluntary disclosures in addition to local inspectors.

These measures follow an earlier decision by Bobby and his team to require senior airline officials to sign off on safety disclosure reports and to revise ethics rules to require a cooling-off period before FAA inspectors can work for an airline they used to oversee or can interact with the agency.

We want to make it clear that there is no place in this agency for anyone interested in turning a blind eye to the safety of our skies. And we also will get to the bottom of why it was that hundreds of thousands of travelers had vacations cancelled and business trips interrupted last week.

All of us have an obligation to the travelers who were inconvenienced to see what lessons can be applied from these recent experiences that would minimize future disruptions for travelers.

So today I am asking the FAA and American Airlines to provide me, within 14 days, their assessments of what happened, why it happened, and what, if anything, could have been done differently.

Their reports will go a long way in explaining why so many aircraft had to be grounded and so many travelers had to be inconvenienced. More importantly, their answers should help us avoid similar disruptions as the FAA completes its comprehensive audit.

In addition, I have asked our Office of Aviation Enforcement to gauge whether the airlines have adequate plans in place to address the needs of passengers should another carrier have to abruptly ground its aircraft. Travelers should not pay the price for unmet deadlines or unclear instructions.

We must do more, though, than respond to the lessons of the past few weeks. As safety professionals, we have to ask what else can be done to improve our approach to safety.

Ever since the FAA began implementing the recommendations of the Gore Commission in 1997 to work in partnership with industry to achieve safety goals, safety has improved.
Before going to the current safety management system, the commercial aviation fatality rate was 45 deaths for every 100 million people flown. Today the rate is a historically low five-to-eight fatalities per 100 million people.

There is simply no question that our approach is sound and our results decisive. But there also is no doubt that a good system can always be made better. So today I am announcing the creation of an outside team of aviation and safety experts to evaluate and craft recommendations to improve our implementation of the aviation safety system.

Randall Babbitt, William McCabe, Ambassador Edward Stimpson, Malcolm Sparrow and Carl Vogt have agreed to serve. This team includes aviation and safety experts from both sides of the aisle with diverse opinions, broad expertise, and strong records of accomplishment. Their task won’t be easy, but their mission will be clear – tell us within 120 days how we can do an even better job of safeguarding the skies.

Taken together, these new measures will improve aviation safety, answer tough questions, and put travelers at ease. They will build on the historic accomplishments of this agency and the record commitment to safety that everyone involved in commercial aviation in this country shares.

While the events of the last few weeks have been challenging, they have raised good questions and reminded all of us that, as good as we are, we can always be better.

But the true measure of an agency is not what challenges it faces, but how it handles them. And I am confident that this agency will respond to, learn from, and improve by this challenge.

Thank you, and now I would be happy to answer your questions.