Hopes for more legroom in increasingly cramped airplane cabins were dashed when US regulators, responding to a court order, said they found no need to impose new standards on airlines. The FAA said Monday that the agency “has no evidence that there is an immediate safety issue necessitating rulemaking at this time.” Research shows that tighter confines on planes isn’t what slows emergency evacuations, the FAA wrote in its response to Flyers Rights, the non-profit citizens group that sued it claiming evacuations could be hindered by tightly packed seating. Instead, exit doors are the choke points that slow evacuations, the agency wrote. The FAA action is the latest move in a swirling controversy that has raised hackles from consumers and prompted attempts at legislation by members of Congress. <br/>
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FAA has completed just under half of the initiatives it agreed to following a June 2015 “call to action” forum focused on preventing runway incursions, the DoT Office of Inspector General (OIG) said. As of November, FAA had completed 10 of 22 initiatives designed to prevent incursions—incidents involving unauthorised aircraft, vehicles or persons on a runway. Two initiatives were canceled and 10 still are in progress, the OIG said in a June 27 report. Runway incursions have increased 83% in recent years, from 954 in the US federal govt’s 2011 financial year (Oct 1-Sept 30) to 1,744 in fiscal 2017, according to the report. “While the number of serious Category A and B incidents is relatively low, they fluctuated over the same timeframe, ranging from a low of 7 in fiscal year 2011 to a high of 19 in fiscal year 2016,” the OIG said. <br/>
Two US Democrat congressmen have accused FAA or failing to implement mandatory drug and alcohol testing for workers at foreign aircraft repair stations. US representatives Peter DeFazio and Rick Larsen have described their complaints in a June 28 letter to FAA and DoT secretary Elaine Chao. “The only thing consistent about the FAA’s oversight of these FAA-certificated facilities—which number more than 700 abroad—is its inconsistency, leaving far too many stones unturned,” DeFazio and Larsen wrote. “We therefore are utterly confused by and disappointed with the FAA’s failure to finalise a rule requiring that workers at foreign repair stations be subject to screening for alcohol and controlled substance use—just as workers at US facilities are—despite 2 explicit Congressional mandates directing the FAA to act.” <br/>