NTSB Chairwoman Marion Blakey to Head Federal Aviation Administration

Associated Press Writer | Jul 16, 2002 | Jonathan D. Salant

[Tacis]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush plans to nominate Marion Blakey to head the Federal Aviation Administration, according to two people with knowledge of the impending decision. Blakey, 54, currently chairs the National Transportation Safety Board, a position Bush gave her last year. She also served as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and as assistant transportation secretary for public affairs in the first Bush administration.

In between government service, she ran her own public relations company, whose clients included the trade group for the nation's airports, which she helped win an increase in airline passenger fees. She also worked on efforts to speed up environmental reviews of proposed runways.

Spokesmen for the FAA and the safety board would not comment on Blakey's nomination, which was confirmed by two people speaking on condition of anonymity. An announcement could come later this week, they said. If confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term, Blakey would succeed Jane Garvey, whose term expires Aug. 4.

The safety board investigates transportation accidents and makes recommendations based on its inquiries. It has no power to enact laws or regulations. Blakey took a lead role in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York City two months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. She regularly appeared at televised news conferences to talk about the investigation and to reassure an anxious public that evidence showed the accident was not caused by terrorist sabotage.

The FAA was criticized for failing to strengthen airline security before the September attacks. Congress passed legislation last fall transferring security out of the FAA and giving it to a new Transportation Security Administration.

During Garvey's five years in office, the FAA developed plans for reducing flight delays, including adding new air routes, installing new technology to track planes and thunderstorms, and reducing the space between planes flying at high altitudes.

The FAA's current budget is $14.4 billion. The agency employs 48,500 people, including 36,000 in air traffic, such as controllers, supervisors and technicians.

[Tacis]

Believe this could be interesting. IIRC, the NTSB has, for years, investigated aircraft accidents and, in some, made reccommendations to change FAA rules and regs. The FAA dragged its feet. Retired NTSBers will talk about recommendations made in "1982" and not acted upon that could have saved.... Of course, Normie the Clown is still at DoT and that will continue to be a problem until our token dem is put out to pasture.

[eno_]

Oh please. This is the same biatch with the deer-in-the-headlights look that floated all the now-punctured trial baloons about how AA587 was turbulence, no bird-strike, no old engine, no thrust reversers, no cheap French plastic tail, etc.

For Patriotic Purposes we are in the midsts of a batch of air disaster cover-ups, and all participants in those cover-ups deserve to rot in hell, not least because little has been done to prevent similar future disasters. You are Spam(tm) in a can when you fly.

[exit82]

What a stunning resume she has. Had a public relations firm. Gee, if I had a paper route, I must be qualified to be Secretary of the Treasury, at least.

No one more qualified could be found? DC justs recycles the same old hacks, it seems.

AA 587's investigation was downright embarrassing as it unfolded, and we still don't know the truth. Now Blakely will be in charge of obsfuscating even bigger things!