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Sun Aug 2 10:42:46 BST 2009

I expect this story, from Avweb's Avflash of August 1, 2009, will be of interest to a number of list members.Regards,
John Annen

Special Counsel Accuses FAA Of Wrongdoing
The
U.S. Office of Special Counsel has written President Barack Obama and
Congress alleging that there's a "substantial likelihood that FAA
officials and employees engaged in violation of law, rule or
regulation, gross mismanagement and an abuse of authority, all of which
contributed to a substantial and specific danger to public safety." The
Special Counsel also accuses the Department of Transportation of
foot-dragging in its investigation of the allegations, which originated
with a whistleblower complaint from FAA inspector Rand Foster on July
8, 2008. Forester contends that the FAA decided, for political reasons,
against enforcing certification standards on more than 300 emergency
medical services helicopters that had non-compliant night vision
systems installed on them. The Office of Special Counsel initially gave
DOT and the FAA 60 days to answer the allegations and has granted
several extensions. On July 20 the Special Counsel decided enough was
enough and notified the government.
In his complaint, Foster says the FAA initially decided to
declare the affected helicopters unairworthy via a Notice of National
Policy. In his complaint, Foster alleged FAA brass decided against
issuing the notice because of negative publicity that arose over
alleged safety concerns at Southwest and American Airlines. "The
information disclosed by Mr. Foster reveals a substantial likelihood of
wrongdoing and raises concerns regarding the airworthiness of hundreds
of emergency medical services helicopters."

The Special Counsel's Letter is availablehere: http://www.avweb.com/pdf/specialcounsel.pdf

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concerns regarding the airworthiness of hundreds of emergency medical services helicopters