New Aviation Czar Appointed
A U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) news announcement this morning stated that in order to help solve the aviation delay problems in the New York area, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters has appointed Marie Kennington-Gardiner as aviation czar.
As the newly appointed aviation “czar,” Kennington-Gardiner will coordinate regional airspace issues and all projects and initiatives addressing problems of congestion and delays in New York.
The news release can be read here.
Dictionary.com defines a czar as any person exercising great authority or power in a particular field: a czar of industry.
So, what’s the message being sent? If you really want something done, you appoint a czar?
Heck, while the DOT is in a czar appointing mind-frame, how about another czar appointment? We could call him or her the Level Playing Field Czar. This person would be responsible for ensuring all maintenance facilities are allowed to do business on a level playing field. This czar could begin by addressing the lack of drug and alcohol testing requirements for foreign repair stations.
If you could appoint a czar to spearhead an important industry initiative, what would the new czar’s title and job description be?
Thanks for reading!
Joe Escobar, Editorial Czar 
AMT and AMTonline.com
I would appoint a czar to put an end to czars.
Give me a break — czar appointments are on the top of the list of things our government does to waste time and resources. Drug czar? Didn’t seem to reduce drug use in the country. AIDS czar? Well, I guess he got it out of the media. We even have a newly appointed cybersecurity czar (note to self, drop the Norton software subscription), and two congressmen even want to appoint a privacy czar.
Enough with appointing czars, just appoint someone who will do the job.
Sorry, what was I thinking? That’s a government appointee I’m talking about.
Just my two cents worth.
George
Reader comment czar
How about appointing an Administrator? We have had Sturgell as Acting Administrator for over 6 months.
Joe,
How about a czar of common sense. The tv said this morning that American Airlines has been caught spacing ty-raps 1 1/4 inches apart instead of 1 inch. That’s what all these cancellations are supposedly about. Does it really matter? Or is there more going on here than we know about?
Yea, I don’t know what that particular AD affecting the MD-80s stated, but the media and Congress are all over this issue. The FAA, airlines, and maintenance are definitely in the spotlights with a lot of people, many of whom don’t have a clue about aviation, chiming in on the subject.
In my opinion, FAA upper management is covering its hind end by mandating its inspctors to comb through records with a fine tooth comb.
I have a hunch these cancellations will continue as the FAA uncovers more faults.
That 1/4 inch becomes a BIG deal when you consider the pressure the FAA is feeling from all sides to do away with its cozy relationship with the airlines.
Joe
I’m in corporate aviation, so it’s hard to get the straight info from the regular news outlets. Is there a website that details what exactly is going on with this second round of inspections? Except for the fact that the FAA is involved, I would have a hard time believing that they would ground 1000 airplanes over an extra 1/4 inch of wire bundle spacing……hell, they could move that much on their own after a couple of flights.
My suspicion is that because the Feds in DC got their pee-pees whacked on Capital Hill (by another bunch of “What, me worry?” jerkoffs) that either:
A) A new zero-tolerance/zero deviation policy is being created for AD compliance
B) Because the DC boys got embarrased, crap rolls down hill
C) This is as much a punitive action, as it is a review action
C) All of the above
I’m worried about the ususal “unintended consequences”
-Are they giving as much scrutiny to what is going on at overseas repair stations? If not, will the end result of this be to drive even more work offshore?
-Will this be the nail in the coffin for one or more US airlines?
I hope that what they are trying to prove is worth all the chaos that it is causing.
Dr. Howard Penrose, author of “Physical Asset Management for the Executive,” wrote today that he believes this whole fiasco could lead to airlines outsourcing MORE maintenance. He brings up an interesting point — only the airlines that have reporting information in with the FAA have been under scrutiny.
Here’s a link to his writeup:
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=21043
Just received this press release from TWU International vice president Dennis Burchette in regards to the MD-80 groundings.
http://www.amtonline.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=5339
Joe
Makes perfect sense now…….
Outsource all maintenance to facilities with no FAA jurisdiction, and:
-the airlines “save” money
-the FAA doesn’t have to worry about regulating something that they have no jurisdiction over.
What could be wrong with that plan? (sarcasm off)
So I’m paranoid. The “one world government” is quickly gaining control and is dictating everything from our involvement in Iraq (purpose: to ruin our economy) through the “open skies nonsense (purpose: to further damage our economy) to ruin our airline industry (purrpose: to hasten the demise of US airlines, further ruin our economy an really open the skies for the foreign carriers to set up toute structrures within the US).
Czar? I guess I better change my business card to “Comrade Mechanic.”
Wouldn’t “Czarina” be more appropriate? I’m surprised our left-leaning Congress went along with that. After all, we all know how Communists feel about Czars.
Seriously, we are probably witnessing the demise of self-disclosure, which is what the ATOS effort was all about.Airlines thought that they had a get-out-of-jail-free card with that, but SWA’s proposed $10.2 million fine threw a lot of light on that illusion. The solution? Appoint a “czar” with unspecified duties and no clear authority, just to show the public you’re doing something. Sure make ME feel better.
You know what the big problem is with these Czars? Most of them are people that have gone to school and have a degree, but have never actually worked in the field that they are now getting a huge salary, they have now idea what they are doing, but they have a piece of paper that tells the government that they have book smarts. How can you tell people how to run a industry in whcih you have never worked in? I sometimes feel that with my 29 years as a A&P / IA Technician I could do the job that some of these people are doing. If I was the American Airlies share holders I would aske for the CEO to be fired after saying that he takes full responsibility for the situation that AA currently in. Maybe he needs to be going through the records with the FAA as they do an audit on each aircraft. I heard that this AD gave the airlines 18 months to comply with it and they are now out of time and make the public pay for it. What it comes down to is that an airplane on the ground doesn’t make any money, so they push it off until they finally have to comply with the AD’s or required maintenance. It doesn’t matter if your are dealing with a piston aircraft that is part of a flight school, a corporate aircraft that is on a 135 Certificate or one of the big boys in the Airlines. Maintenance always has to fight to get the aircraft to do the required maintenance and the ones your are fighting with have no idea what it takes to get the job done.
WTF? how about we just fire the administrator for incompetence and hire one that can do the job!