FAA PROPOSES $1.66 MILLION IN HAZMAT FINES AGAINST BOEING, FEDEX
The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed $1.665 million in fines against Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, FedEx. Corp. and others.
Boeing was rocked with $1.24 million in penalties for incidents which occurred about two years ago.
The FAA proposed fining the aircraft manufacturer $741,0000 for failing to assure that its suppliers and subcontractors adopted and followed Boeing's quality control policies and procedures. The administration cited four separate instances following inspections in late 1997 and early 1998 of Boeing suppliers, including Parker Control Systems in Ogden, Utah; Aerospace Technologies of Australia in Port Melbourne; Kayaba Industries in Kanagawa, Japan; and Northrop Grumman in Grand Prairie Texas.
The FAA said there were no direct safety implications on aircraft from the violations and that Boeing has submitted corrective action plans to the FAA and addressed the situation.
“However, the FAA continues to pursue a comprehensive corrective action plan to Boeing's supplier control system that would apply broadly across Boeing's supplier base,” the administration said in a statement.
The FAA also proposed fining Boeing $500,000 for failing to report cracks in critical airplane structures within 24 hours as required by law. Boeing waited 298 days, until August 7, 1997, to tell the FAA about cracks in the horizontal stabilizer front spare of a Boeing 737-100, the FAA said.
The FAA said Boeing also waited 415 days to report a crack in the aft pressure bulkhead of a Boeing 737-200.
The administration proposed fining FedEx $165,000 for improperly shipping a chemical oxygen generator on a cargo flight from Los Angeles to the company's sorting facility in Memphis, where employees discovered the shipment. The generator was packed in a fiberboard box and was not labeled, marked, classed, described, documented nor in condition for shipment as required by regulations, the FAA said.
The National Transportation Safety Review Board ruled that an oxygen generator in the lower forward cargo hold caused the crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades several years ago. Since then, the FAA has aggressively pursued hazmat violations.
Other companies and fines proposed by the FAA are: Roy F. Weston Inc., $80,000 for shipping a portable generator aboard a FedEx flight; Xerox, $72,000 for shipping flammable liquid on a United Parcel Service cargo flight; Midwest Sign & Screen Printing Supply Co. Inc., $54,000 for shipping flammable printer's ink aboard a UPS flight; and Heritage Environmental Services LLC, $52,500, for shipping mineral spirits.
