Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether eligible Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) employees abuse their authority to use access-to-aircraft privileges aboard commercial aircraft. GAO noted that: (1) a number of NTSB employees abused their authority to use access-to-aircraft privileges between July 1992 and December 1993; (2) FAA and NTSB employees used "must fly" status instead of "space available" status for nonpriority travel; (3) NTSB employees must indicate their travel status on access-to-aircraft coupons in order to qualify for these privileges; (4) NTSB management does not oversee the appropriateness of employees' travel status in their coupon booklets; and (5) NTSB is not required to retain used access-to-aircraft coupon booklets to identify employees' "must fly" or "space available" status.