Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Pontifications: Southwest’s core problems are not solved by business model changes-yet March 19, 2025
- Boeing 2024 Proxy Statement: Executive Compensation includes retirement gifts for Calhoun, Deal; housing support for Ortberg, Pope, and other stuff March 17, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 13. March 14, 2025
- Rolls-Royce’s remarkable turnaround March 13, 2025
- NASA hit by DOGE layoffs, office closures; Boeing’s X-66A R&D continues for now March 11, 2025
The FAA: Tombstone Agency or Hampered by Tombstone Politics?
Special Report: The US Federal Aviation Administration is known to be slow in mandating changes related to safety. The FAA has come under widespread criticism for Congress and families of crash victims, in recent history with increasing frequency. Sometimes called the Tombstone Agency, this name emerged after the FAA repeatedly failed to implement safety requirements until after fatal or near-fatal air crashes. But as this Special Report shows, actions—or the lack of them—have roots going back to the propeller days.
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By Colleen Mondor
March 6, 2025, © Leeham News: On Jan. 31, two days after the midair collision near Reagan National Airport in Washington (DC), the FAA announced it was indefinitely restricting usage of the two low level helicopter routes through the airspace.
Two weeks later, the Wall Street Journal reported the agency was moving to permanently delete those routes. For longtime FAA observers, this was yet another example of reactionary response, further proof of a “tombstone mentality” that permeates the FAA bureaucracy. For those who subscribe to such a view, the FAA never does anything until the cost is so high there is no other choice. In Flying Blind, Flying Safe, former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo said the attitude was pervasive but then relied upon a common construct to support the claim: the anonymous source. In her case, she quoted a third hand exchange between an unnamed FAA official and unknown journalist where the official apparently said: “We regulate by counting tombstones.”
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The origins of the tombstone moniker are unknown. On his website, consumer advocate Ralph Nader shares a quote from an unnamed National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official dating to the time of his 1994 book on airline safety. This official allegedly said, “that the FAA operates under a ‘tombstone imperative’.” The same terminology was headlined by the Tampa Bay Times that year and in 2001 the Washington Post referred to “tombstone regulation” writing that “Great leaps forward in aviation safety often occur after crashes.” Last month, on February 12, the New York Times cited the crashes in DC, Pennsylvania and Alaska, to make the reference again, saying the FAA “has earned the nickname the tombstone agency among aviation safety advocates for not addressing potential problems until disaster struck.”.
Politics and the FAA
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By Colleen Mondor
Credit: New York Post.
Feb. 13, 2025, © Leeham News: On Jan. 29 at 8:47 PM, a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flying a low-level route over the Potomac River collided with a PSA Airlines Mitsubishi CRJ700 operating as an American Airlines flight 5342 on final approach to Washington Reagan National Airport.
The military crew of three and the 64 passengers and crew on flight 5342 were all killed. The near immediate upload of Air Traffic Control (ATC) communications online showed that flight 5342 was cleared for final to runway 33 while approaching the airport from the south. The Black Hawk, transitioning the airspace from the north, requested visual separation and acknowledged traffic in sight.
In the aftermath of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately launched a “GO Team” in the area. It held an early press conference with all five members of the board present. Within hours of the crash, however, it was obvious that two potentially conflicting stories were emerging. The first was a traditional aviation accident investigation, which included the NTSB and investigators from the US military. The second was comprised of pure politics and fueled by negative comments from President Trump the day after the accident, which attacked not only the professionalism of Reagan’s ATC employees but controllers nationwide.
FAA understaffing affects air operations oversight; NTSB falls short, too
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By Colleen Mondor
Commentary
Jan. 13, 2025, © Leeham News: When discussing the topic of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) staffing, it is traditionally Air Traffic Controllers that command media attention. Even when problems surfaced after the Boeing 737 MAX accidents in 2018-19, and following the Jan. 5, 2024, door plug failure on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, the discussion of FAA oversight remained narrow, focused only on Boeing.
Staffing levels within Flight Standards District Offices (FSDO) and how they impact commercial operations, especially among Part 135 operators, are rarely mentioned. (Part 135 operators are commuter airlines and on-demand companies.) And yet it is the inspectors for operations, maintenance, and avionics who can have the greatest positive impact on flight safety or, when absent, the most detrimental.
Between 2019 and 2023, there were 330 accidents involving Part 135 operators. (More than 100 occurred while operating under Part 91 or Part 133. Part 91 are individuals and corporate operators. Part 133 covers rotorcraft external operations.) In 11 of them, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted extensive interviews with FAA inspectors. Such interviews are largely the only way to obtain direct information on inspectors’ feelings about staffing and workload concerns. Their experiences vary, with Alaska standing out with the most severe staff shortages. A common theme is not having enough time to conduct in-person visits.
The Boeing 90 day executive summary to the FAA: An analysis
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By the Leeham News Team
June 3, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration last week released summaries of the company’s plan to fix its safety shortcomings following the Jan. 5 accident of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
That’s the day a 10-week-old 737-9 MAX saw a door plug blow out at 16,000 ft on take-off from Portland (OR). Nobody died but there were some injuries and damage throughout the cabin and the cockpit occurred. The flight crew made an emergency landing at Portland.
Following this accident, the FAA on Feb. 29 gave Boeing 90 days to come up with yet another plan to address safety and production failures. (Boeing developed plans after the 2018/19 737-8 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.)
In a three-hour meeting on May 31, Boeing CEO David Calhoun and other senior executives outline its latest plan. The FAA’s press release afterward largely was a reaffirmation that it will hold Boeing’s feet to the fire until it is satisfied the safety culture at Boeing changes. There is no timeline for Boeing to implement changes—at least none that was announced.
Boeing released an 11-page Executive Summary that largely outlined steps it has taken to improve safety, and which ones continue. The detailed PowerPoint presentation given to the FAA was not released. Through a spokesperson, the FAA declined to make FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker available for an interview.
A key element of the go-forward plan is a requirement by the FAA that a voluntary Safety Management System (SMS) is now mandatory.
The FAA and Boeing statements released last week drew immediate criticism for lack of detail, repetitive nature of steps already taken, and—given the steps taken in 2019 and 2020—why this is necessary today.
LNA’s news team, which includes former Boeing employees whose duties included safety, reviewed the information announced last week. This is the analysis.
Boeing releases Executive Summary of FAA plan (Update with FAA comment)
Update: The FAA, responding to a query from LNA about deadlines and milestones, had this to say:
“This is about systemic change, and there’s a lot of work to be done. Boeing must meet milestones and the timing of our decisions will be driven by their ability to do so. Boeing has delivered a roadmap to change its safety culture, and the FAA will make sure Boeing implements the changes they have outlined. We will not approve production increases beyond the current cap until we’re satisfied they’ve followed through on implementing corrective actions and transforming their safety culture. The FAA will make sure Boeing makes lasting change using all of the tools at our disposal. We need to see a strong and unwavering commitment to safety and quality that endures over time.”
May 30, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing today released an 11-page executive summary of its plan to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A top-level summary is below.
“A significant component of our Safety & Quality Plan are these six key performance indicators (KPIs) focused on safety, quality and production health,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.
- Employee proficiency measures share of employees who are deemed proficient in core skills.
- Notice of Escape (NoE) rework hours measures time performing rework in Boeing’s final assembly facilities to address non-conforming work from its fabrication division and external suppliers.
- Supplier shortages measures shortages per day from Boeing’s fabrication division and external suppliers.
- Rework hours per airplane measures time spent performing rework in Boeing’s final assembly facilities.
- Travelers at factory rollout measures unfinished jobs traveling from Final Assembly
- Ticketing performance measures quality escapes per ticketed airplane prior to delivery.
This week Boeing must deliver on safety–again
By the Leeham News Team
Analysis
May 28, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing’s FAA-mandated plan to improve its safety culture is due this week.
Following the Jan. 5 accident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 and a year-long safety study commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing was given 90 days to come up with a new plan to improve safety procedures.
Boeing’s been down this path before. Following the 2018/19 crashes of two 737-8 MAXes in which 346 people died, Boeing implemented several safety studies and procedures. Flight 1282 demonstrated a shocking lack of results from the earlier efforts.
The FAA on Feb. 29 gave Boeing 90 days to make a realistic plan for addressing the path forward to an acceptable level of quality. This is an exceptionally tall ask given all that has gone wrong in the recent past. It’s unclear if the FAA will release Boeing’s proposal publicly. But LNA’s reporting team, which includes retired Boeing employees whose duties included safety and production, thinks that whatever plan is put forth to the FAA will all boil down to one point, execution. That’s Boeing’s problem today: Failure to execute its production plan as documented in its operation command media.
Boeing unlikely to meet FAA’s 90-day deadline for new safety program
By Scott Hamilton
April 18, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing appears unlikely to meet a 90-day deadline to submit a comprehensive plan to address safety concerns, insiders tell LNA.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Feb. 28 gave Boeing three months to address “systemic quality-control issues,” a move sparked by new safety concerns following the Jan. 5 accident of Alaska Airlines flight 1282. A 10-week-old 737-9 MAX was minutes into climb-out from the Portland (OR) airport when a door plug blew out, prompting explosive decompression of the cabin. Nobody died but there were injuries and damage throughout the cabin.
“FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker told Boeing that he expects the company to provide the FAA a comprehensive action plan within 90 days that will incorporate the forthcoming results of the FAA production-line audit and the latest findings from the expert review panel report, which was required by the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act of 2020,” the FAA said in the Feb. 28 press release.
- Boeing firefighters union rejects contract again; free to strike May 3. See below.
- SPEEA, Boeing’s engineer and technician union, tells members to start saving for a strike. See below.
“The plan must also include steps Boeing will take to mature its Safety Management System (SMS) program, which it committed to in 2019. Boeing also must integrate its SMS program with a Quality Management System, which will ensure the same level of rigor and oversight is applied to the company’s suppliers and create a measurable, systemic shift in manufacturing quality control.”
Now 45 days later, LNA is told Boeing is unlikely to meet the deadline. Furthermore, Boeing’s engineering and technicians union has had no outreach from Boeing seeking its input into the plan.
Bjorn’s Corner: New aircraft technologies. Part 51. Wrap up
By Bjorn Fehrm
March 22, 2024, ©. Leeham News: Last week we did the first part of the Wrap-up of our 50 article series about the New Aircraft Technologies that can be used when replacing our present single-aisle airliners.
Now, we summarize the last 25 articles in the series, which covered how to develop, produce, and support a new airliner.
Figure 1. The Program Plan for a new airliner. Source: Leeham Co.
Pontifications: Boeing violated previous FAA ODA, SMS demands—Been there, done that
March 5, 2024, © Leeham News: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week gave The Boeing Co. 90 days to come up with a real program that has measurable results to fix safety and quality shortcomings.
By Scott Hamilton
The move follows the release on Feb. 26 of a year-long safety audit by a panel of 24 industry experts appointed by the FAA. More than 50 recommendations were made. Much of the focus was on failures in Boeing’s Organization Designation Authority (ODA), the Safety Management System (SMS), and pressure and fear of retaliation of employees who came forward with alerts about safety issues during aircraft production at Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA).
ODAs are employed by Boeing but represent the FAA. The FAA is considering establishing an independent ODA system at Boeing.
In giving Boeing 90 days to come up with a solid safety program, Administrator Mike Whitaker was blunt: “Boeing must commit to real and profound improvements. Making foundational change will require a sustained effort from Boeing’s leadership, and we are going to hold them accountable every step of the way, with mutually understood milestones and expectations.”
Boeing is the top aerospace company with the most fines and number of records, according to the website Violation Tracker. This is for all types of fines, including aviation safety, environmental, worker safety (under the USA’s OSHA), etc. Detail of Boeing’s aviation safety violations is below. Boeing’s number above includes the $2.5bn fine for the 2018-19 MAX crisis. Airbus includes a $500m settlement to the US Department of Justice for ITAR violations. Click on image to enlarge.
But Boeing and the FAA have been down this road before. Boeing and the FAA established the ODA systems ago and the SMS was created in 2019. The FAA previously fined Boeing for failing to follow through on elements of both programs.
Breaking News: Congressionally-mandate safety study finds flaws at Boeing (Updated with Boeing comment)
Feb. 26, 2024, © Leeham News: A Congressionally-mandated safety review study of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) dropped this morning. The 50-page report of a committee appointed by the Federal Aviation Administration found serious flaws in Boeing’s safety culture despite years of attempts to improve.
LNA is still absorbing the study, which may be downloaded here: Boeing Safety Study by FAA Panel 2-26-24
The Executive Summary is synopsized below.
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- Congress is ultimately responsible for safety mess
