Jordan, Lewis, President, ValuJet Airlines, Inc.: Statement of Louise Laughlin, Vice President of People, ValuJet Airlines Affidavits of SabreTech personnel Statement of ValuJet Safety and Regulatory Compliance Philosophy Statement of Arnold Barnett, Professor, Operations Research/Statistics, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology MD-80 Aircraft Maintenance Manual, Chemical Oxygen Generator, Mainte- Kelly, Hon. Sue W., a Representative in Congress from New York, report, 174 Kim, Hon. Jay, a Representative in Congress from California, Federal Avia- Clarification of Inspector General's Congressional Testimony, June 25, Shuster, Hon. Bud, a Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, draft of a FAA enforcement summary, from Charles A. Spillner to Bill Nelmes, Tate, Hon. Randy, a Representative in Congress from Washington: Draft of Special Emphasis Program Preliminary Inspection Report, Depart- 215 103 131 Higgins, Charles, Vice President, Airplane Safety, Boeing Commercial Air- plane Group, The Boeing Company Safety Accidents Caused by the Air Transport of Hazardous Materials and Barclay, Charles, President, American Association of Airport Executives, Walter Coleman, President, Regional Airline Association, and David Plavin. President, Airports Council International-North America, Letter to President Clinton, May 31, 1996 494 Myerscough, Rick, letter to Rep. Duncan, June 28, 1996 Jeter, William K., letter to Rep. Shuster, June 30, 1996 Lutz, Renato, letter to the Subcommittee on Aviation, July 1, 1996 Elishakoff, Isaac, Professor, Florida Atlantic University, article, "Let Us In- troduce a New Measure of Flightworthiness: Prifety-Price Times Unsafety," (IV) Daschle, Linda Hall, Deputy Administrator, Federal Aviation Association, Overly, Mike, Aviation Safety Institute, letter to Rep. Shuster, July 23, 1996. Page 556 564 565 567 AVIATION SAFETY: ISSUES RAISED BY THE CRASH OF VALUJET FLIGHT 592 TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1996 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 a.m. in room 2167 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John J. Duncan, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. DUNCAN. The subcommittee will please come to order. I want to first welcome all the witnesses here today, and I would particularly like to welcome Senator Cohen. Mr. Shuster, the chairman of the full committee, has launched an investigation into the many issues that have been raised since the unfortunate ValuJet accident last month. This subcommittee and I think I can speak for every membertruly regrets the loss of life in that terrible accident, and our heartfelt prayers go out to those families and friends who lost loved ones. Just last week we heard some very compelling testimony from a number of family members of victims who have been killed in airline crashes and how they were treated by airlines, the media, lawyers, and Government agencies. This subcommittee plans to introduce legislation that hopefully will help ensure that family members of those tragedies are treated with dignity and respect, and that they receive the information that is so desperately needed when those tragedies occur. The purpose of this hearing today is to examine a broad spectrum of airline safety issues, not just ValuJet, but those issues that have been raised since this accident occurred. This subcommittee has a number of questions, some of which include the adequacy of the FAA's safety and hazardous materials inspection programs, and specifically the FAA's oversight of ValuJet in this regard. We also want to look into other issues, including the FAA's role in overseeing maintenance at contract repair stations, the FAA's implementation of NTSB recommendations, and the latest NTSB conclusions regarding the cause of the crash. We want to make absolutely sure that we don't just make cosmetic changes, but real changes and effective changes that solve the problems that exist. Let me also say that under the leadership of Chairman Shuster this committee has approved legislation that I and nearly every (1) member of the subcommittee, including Mr. Lipinski and Mr. Oberstar, introduced to reform and streamline the FAA. In fact, I'm pleased that just yesterday the "New York Times" once again endorsed the bill that the House passed. In fact, the House unanimously passed H.R. 2276 on March 12. In addition, the full committee and the House overwhelmingly, by a margin of about two to one, approved Chairman Shuster's legislation, H.R. 842, which would provide available and needed resources from the Aviation Trust Fund that can and should be used to update and improve our Nation's air traffic control system, as well as other FAA safety-related functions. So I think that this committee and the entire House has acted in a timely and very responsive fashion to help make our already safe aviation system even safer. We have emphasized that in this subcommittee that our system is very safe. As several of us have pointed out, there have been a little over 12,000 people who have lost their lives very unfortunately and very tragically in aviation accidents since the Wright Brothers' flight in this country, but almost that many lose their lives in every 4 months on our Nation's highways. I know that millions of Americans rely on and want-and they have shown that they want low-cost airlines by their ticket purchases and their comments, but obviously they want low-cost airlines that are safe. We need somehow to strike a balance to make sure that we don't over-regulate the aviation industry in this country so that we end up with just one or two large airlines and no others, because then we will force the price of air travel up so much that we would force millions of Americans back onto our already overcrowded and much less-safe highways. We've got to strike this balance. These low-cost carriers are, for many people, the only opportunity that they could have to fly. We must find a balance to ensure that the low-cost carriers remain in the marketplace and that they and all airlines are as safe as possible. We look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses. Before I recognize the chairman of the full committee, I would like to announce that we will be swearing in our witnesses today, with the exception of Senator Cohen. This follows the custom in this committee to swear in witnesses at investigative hearings. Previously, in the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, witnesses were routinely sworn in, so this is nothing out of the ordinary, and we just wanted to let the witnesses know about this. Also, because we want to get to the witnesses as soon as possible, the leadership of the committee has reached an agreement that the only members who will be giving oral opening statements today will be the chairman, the chairman of the full committee and the ranking members. I hope that other Members are understanding of the need to do that. We will place any statements that they have in the record. Also, in order to expedite things, it is our plan-and we have had requests in this respect also that after Senator Cohen testifies we will have Mr. Hall, Ms. Schiavo, and Mr. Hinson each come up to the table individually and testify, and then we will have Mr. Hall— |