06-05-2018Airline fined $1.3M for faking pilot records - USATODAY.com
By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
The government on Thursday fined a Florida airline $1.3 million for falsifying records that showed how long its pilots worked. The airline had trained the pilot of the commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo in February.
Gulfstream International Airlines, a carrier for Continental Airlines in Florida and Ohio, falsified records for its pilots, allowing the pilots to fly for more hours than federal law allows, the Federal Aviation Administration charged. The airline also installed unapproved parts and did not properly maintain its fleet of turboprops, the agency said.
BACKGROUND: Pilots acted 'just opposite' of normal practices
The fine, which Gulfstream can challenge, is large for a small airline. It operates 25 Beech 1900-D planes, twin-engine turboprops that hold 19 passengers.
The company did not respond Thursday to telephone and e-mail requests for comment on the FAA action.
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Gulfstream and its sister company, Gulfstream Training Academy, offer pilots commercial experience in exchange for purchasing training. For about $25,000, a pilot with limited or no experience can work at "an actual airline flying real flights for Continental Connection," the academy's website says.
Capt. Marvin Renslow, who was at the controls when a Colgan Air commuter plane went wildly out of control and plunged to the ground on Feb. 12, trained with Gulfstream in 2004 and 2005, according to National Transportation Safety Board records. Colgan Air was operating under contract for Continental Airlines at the time of the Buffalo crash.
The pilot-record violations at Gulfstream occurred in 2007 and 2008, after Renslow left the airline, said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.
The co-pilot on a Comair flight that crashed in 2006 after trying to take off from a dark, closed runway in Lexington, killing 49 of 50 people aboard, also worked at Gulfstream, NTSB records show.
Before the fine was announced, Capt. James Bystrom, director of Gulfstream Training Academy, said it would be unfair to blame accidents that occurred at other airlines on Gulfstream. Like thousands of other Gulfstream graduates who have gone on to other airlines, those pilots had passed tests administered by FAA representatives and had completed training at their airlines, Bystrom said.
"We don't compromise on safety," he said.
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