FAA Light Bulb Goofiness (Five years and mega-$$$$ later)
Jan 23, 2004, 9:48 am
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FAA Light Bulb Goofiness (Five years and mega-$$$$ later)
Federal aviation investigators compiled an inch-thick file on a 1999 complaint about a burned-out bulb in a Comair plane's "no smoking, fasten seat belt" sign before the airline paid a $3,000 fine to settle the complaint. At issue: a 77-cent bulb. The government eventually concluded that little blame could be attached to the company and reduced a pr posed $44,000 fine to $3,000, which Comair paid in November. Without the settlement, the dispute would have gone to a hearing Thursday in Cincinnati before a U.S. Department of Transportation administrative judge.
An off-duty Federal Aviation Administration inspector on board a Comair flight from Long Island, N.Y., to Cincinnati noticed the inoperative sign in the first row of the jet. The bulb outage meant that the aircraft was technically "not in an airworthy condition" under FAA rules, the agency said in a summary of the case. The inspector notified a flight attendant, who followed Comair's regulations by informing the pilot of the problem. But the pilot failed to note the outage in the aircraft's maintenance log at the end of the flight, and Comair flew the plane four more times before recording and correcting the problem, FAA officials said.
The FAA proposed the $44,000 fine, saying that Comair could be required to pay up to $11,000 for each of the four flights with the buned-out bulb. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...ulb-fine_x.htm
MisterNice
