Aviation safety watchdog of the United States of America , the Federal Aviation Administration is increasing its oversight of United Airlines, the company announced Friday, following a series of recent issues including a piece of the outer fuselage falling off one jet, an engine fire and a plane losing a tire during takeoff.
United's vice president of corporate safety, Sasha Johnson, wrote in an internal memo to staff on Friday that the carrier will see an increased FAA presence in its operations, which include a review of its work processes, manuals and standard operating procedures.
“As you’d expect, we’ve stepped up our interactions with the FAA recently and they echoed these sentiments,” Johnson wrote in the memo viewed by Skift. “They agree that we need to take an even closer look at multiple areas of our operation to ensure we are doing all we can to promote and drive safety compliance.”
“Over the next several weeks, we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities,” she said in a note to employees.
“We welcome their engagement and are very open to hear from them about what they find and their perspective on things we may need to change to make us even safer.”
The agency said it “routinely monitors all aspects of an airline’s operation" and did not describe any additional steps it is taking in United's case.
In a statement, an agency spokesperson said FAA oversight
“focuses on an airline’s compliance with applicable regulations; ability to identify hazards, assess and mitigate risk; and effectively manage safety.”
These oversight measures could be seen as a direct reaction of the FAA after United experienced multiple incidents during March, those including one where an external Belly fairing panel fell off a Boeing 737-800 aircraft (N26226) that landed in Medford, Oregon after taking off from San Francisco.
A United Boeing 737-900ER (N31412) departing from Houston had to make an emergency landing after an engine started spitting flames. And another flight from Houston, a Boeing B737 MAX (N27290), did an excursion by sliding off the runway, while exiting the Runway 27.
A Boeing B777-200 aircraft (N226UA) also dropped (PDA) a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco (SFO) fro Osaka (KIX). Some of the incidents, mostly mechanical and operational issues, have been typical mishaps for the United Airlines.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he spoke with United CEO Scott Kirby about the events. He told NBC News earlier this week,,
“We are going to look at each one of these incidents and see if we see a pattern. … No one likes to see this spike of incidents."
Earlier in the week, Kirby tried to reassure the customers that the airline is safe, saying that the recent issues were unrelated to each other.
Kirby also emphasized that the carrier has planned an extra day of training for pilots starting in May and making changes in training curriculum for newly hired maintenance personnel, and that it would consider additional changes as per the requirement.
Last time United Airlines was in news, when one of its Boeing B777-200 aircraft, started dropping (Parts Departing Aircraft) the engine nacelle parts over Denver in Broomfield Commons Park & Red Leaf neighborhoods, after its engine number two had an uncontained failure.
On Friday, some Congressional representatives, including Anna Eshoo and Kevin Mullin, sent a letter to Michael Whitaker, FAA administrator, and Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, requesting information about how each agency will respond to recent airline incidents across the country.
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