FAA stepping up oversight of United Airlines, may pause some certifications

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is stepping up its oversight of United Airlines as it looks to ensure the carrier’s compliance with safety regulations following a series of incidents, the agency said Saturday.

“Due to recent safety events, the FAA is increasing oversight of United Airlines to ensure that it is complying with safety regulations; identifying hazards and mitigating risk; and effectively managing safety,” the agency told FOX Business in a statement.

“Certification activities in process may be allowed to continue, but future projects may be delayed based on findings from oversight. The FAA will also initiate an evaluation of United Airlines under the provisions of the Certificate Holder Evaluation Process,” the regulator added.

United’s corporate safety vice president, Sasha Johnson, told employees in a memo to employees sent Friday that workers are likely to see more of a presence by the FAA at the airline’s facilities in the next several weeks.

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“We have a strong safety culture at United,” Johnson wrote. “Still, the number of safety-related events in recent weeks have rightfully caused us to pause and evaluate whether there is anything we can and should do differently. After all, safety is foundational to the success of our airline and we can never take it for granted.”

Johnson said that United has “stepped up our interactions with the FAA recently and they echoed these sentiments. They agree that we need to take an even closer look at multiple areas of our operation to ensure we are doing all we can to promote and drive safety compliance.”

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She explained that in the coming weeks “we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities. We welcome their engagement and are very open to hear from them about what they find and their perspective on things we may need to change to make us even safer.”

“As part of this effort, the FAA will also pause a variety of certification activities for a period of time. Those activities will differ depending on the work group and we will learn more from the FAA about that soon,” she added.

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The FAA’s increased oversight comes after several safety incidents that have occurred in recent weeks. 

An external panel was missing from a United aircraft when it landed in Oregon, which prompted an FAA investigation. A Boeing 737 Max in the United fleet rolled onto the grass in Houston after landing. A United-operated Boeing 777-200 bound for Japan lost a tire after taking off from San Francisco and was diverted to Los Angeles, where it landed safely.

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Earlier this month, a flight from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, made an emergency landing after experiencing an engine issue. A video showed flames spewing out of one of the plane’s engines as a crew member acknowledged the situation.

FOX Business’ Daniella Genovese and Reuters contributed to this report.