Are airlines and the FAA "too cozy"?

With United Airlines the fourth major carrier to ground planes in the past month because of maintenance concerns, critics claim the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is "too cozy" with the airlines it regulates.

As evidence, critics point to a wave of recent problems:

• Crossed wiring led two United Airlines jets to skid off runways.

• Federal inspectors blew the whistle on Southwest Airlines for flying planes after learning that critical safety checks had not been conducted on schedule.

• A 20-square-foot piece of wing broke off a US Airways jet over Maryland.

The disclosures have raised concerns in Congress and among safety experts about airlines' maintenance practices and prompted a major congressional hearing today on the issue.

Safety experts said they are also worried about regulatory oversight of an industry that has been outsourcing increasing amounts of its repair work, which makes it more difficult for FAA inspectors to keep tabs on carriers.

The latest complication came Wednesday, when United temporarily grounded dozens of Boeing 777s to test cargo fire-suppression systems.

United said it canceled 41 flights and delayed dozens of others as it carried out work on the long-haul jets after a review of maintenance records showed a test on a bottle in the fire-suppression system hadn't been performed.

Testing on all 52 of United's 777s — 11 percent of its overall fleet — was expected to be completed today. The carrier said 36 of the jets had been inspected and cleared to fly by Wednesday evening.

The move affected thousands of passengers worldwide because United's 777s mostly fly international routes from its major hubs. Among those grounded was a 777 used by many members of the White House press corps, who were traveling with President Bush in Romania, although the plane wasn't set to fly again until Friday.

Schedule foul-ups due to inspections have been commonplace since early March, including hundreds of flights canceled last week by American Airlines and Delta Air Lines as they checked wiring bundles on some planes. Stepped-up inspections began when the FAA ordered a check of maintenance records at all domestic carriers after revelations surfaced about missed safety inspections at Southwest Airlines.

The FAA said Wednesday that four U.S. airlines are under investigation for failing to comply with federal aviation regulations but would not name the carriers. Officials said three airlines had missed inspection deadlines and that penalties could be levied, though it would be several months before the investigation was complete. The violations were uncovered by the FAA audit.

FAA acting Administrator Robert Sturgell said the preliminary results of the audit showed that the industry is safe. Out of 2,392 audits at 117 airlines, the agency found seven possible violations at four carriers, the agency said.

"The bottom line is ... flying is safer today than at any time in the past," Sturgell said Wednesday. "It's no accident or miracle."

The last U.S. crash of a jumbo jet was Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighborhood, killing 265 people.

Independent airline consultant Robert Mann said that while the issue with the 777s should have been detected beforehand, passengers shouldn't be worried about increased maintenance glitches.

"It's clearly inconvenient for passengers but it's a matter of the system working as designed," he said. "Carriers are now being prompted to check their own records and check the facts versus the records, and the FAA is doing the same thing from its end."

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the recent flurry of maintenance problems is partially a result of "a cozy relationship between the FAA and airlines and a lack of an enforcement mind-set" by regulators.

"We need a change of attitude at the highest levels of the FAA," said Oberstar, who is holding today's hearing.

The hearing will feature the testimony of FAA whistle-blowers who said that with the FAA's knowledge, Southwest Airlines continued to fly airplanes that missed inspections for up to 30 months.

"All eyes are on this now. We have a fundamental problem here," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel managers. "It's time for a giant step back for a top-down strategic review of the FAA."

Oberstar's investigators and others with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel have alleged that a top FAA inspector became too close to employees at Southwest and gave the airline special treatment in March 2007 by improperly allowing the carrier to keep flying jets that needed safety checks for cracks. Other inspectors, who said their supervisors did not do enough to enforce safety regulations, reported the problems to congressional investigators.

It took the FAA a year to levy a $10.2 million fine against Southwest, which the agency announced last month. Lawmakers, inspectors and outside safety experts said the delay indicated problems with FAA enforcement.

FAA officials denied they are too friendly with air carriers and said the industry has done a good job of complying with often complex directives requiring them to fix items as varied as faulty wiring to windshields.

Even the agency's toughest critics in Congress, including Oberstar, have said air travelers should not be nervous about stepping onto a jetliner.

But lawmakers and safety experts said they worry they are witnessing the same types of problems that dogged the industry a decade ago. That is when the FAA and carriers came under fire for lax maintenance practices that led to crashes.

Many of today's reporting and monitoring systems — which rely heavily on airlines reporting problems to regulators — were developed to fix such lapses.

In exchange for disclosing errors or other mistakes, airlines are generally not subjected to fines or other forms of punishment. Some experts and members of Congress worry that the approach may need to be recalibrated.

"The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of partnership with the airlines," said Ken Mead, a former inspector general at the Department of Transportation.

Special Counsel Scott Bloch, whose office investigates complaints by whistle-blowers, said he believes "there are significant issues with the FAA commitment to oversight and safety compliance."

Compiled from The Washington Post, The Associated Press, USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor