Computer has been down, so hope this is not old news-
Gulfstream Airlines contests FAA fine
Tuesday June 16, 2009
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Gulfstream International Airlines yesterday released its response to US FAA's proposed $1.3 million civil penalty for improper scheduling and the installation of an unapproved component on its 1900Ds, admitting several schedule and recordkeeping errors but challenging the fine and citing "differences in interpretation" and its 20-plus years of accident-free operations in its defense.
The carrier said "information presented to the FAA during the 2008 inspection could have been confusing" and that it revamped its recordkeeping processes last year in all cases (ATWOnline, May 18). It further asserted that none of the agency's findings involved "safety-of-flight issues."
It admitted that one pilot accidentally was scheduled for eight consecutive days, one more than the limit, but flew on only six days, and said none of the 10 discrepancies between pilot logs and automated records involved illegal flight time. It said payroll records reflecting nonflight hr. contributed to the confusion and denied any dispatcher scheduling errors. It said it "believes the two maintenance practices cited by the FAA were handled properly and were not violations."
"While we may respectfully disagree with the FAA's findings of violations in many cases, we do agree that any error is one too many," President and CEO Dave Hackett said. "Beginning last summer, we immediately instituted daily flight record audits for 100% of our flights to prevent any future recordkeeping errors."
by Brian Straus