For Release: Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Contact: David Gillies: 202-225-5661

AVIATION SUBCOMMITTEE EXAMINES FAA CERTIFICATION OF ECLIPSE EA-500

Washington -The House Aviation Subcommittee today examined deficiencies in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) process for certifying the Eclipse EA-500 Very Light Jet. Testimony from Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel, III, depicts a process where safety considerations at times were secondary to completing the certification in a timely matter and other factors.

Identified problems include the FAA awarding a production certificate despite deficiencies in Eclipse’s supplier and quality control systems, certifying Eclipse to approve its own airworthiness four years before receiving a design certificate and reports from FAA employees that FAA management used abusive practices and pressure to achieve certification by a date certain.

Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-IL) expressed concern that the Eclipse situation was another example of the FAA’s inability to effectively manage its safety programs. Earlier this year, the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee exposed insufficient FAA safety inspections of Southwest Airlines planes and a sometimes too close relationship between FAA inspectors and Southwest employees.

“For the past few years, I have asked the question – does the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have adequate resources to accomplish its mission and in turn, are they relying too heavily on its safety record in order to demonstrate its ability to keep a safe system? Over these past two years, our hearings in the Aviation Subcommittee and the full Committee have demonstrated an agency that is short on resources, low in morale, and incapable of adequately overseeing its critical safety programs.... I am extremely disappointed that the FAA again lacks the ability to oversee its programs – in this case its certification programs. Unfortunately, this hearing will expose an agency that is as interested in promoting aviation and befriending manufacturers as it is in carrying out its number one responsibility of protecting safety and the flying public. The FAA is not used to serious oversight, but that is what this Subcommittee is going to continue to provide.”

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