Emery Worldwide Airlines Fined $1m
Emery to pay $1 mln fine as part of plan to resume-WSJ
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Five weeks after government regulators forced Emery Worldwide Airlines, a unit of CNF Inc (NYSE:CNF – news), to suspend operations of its own fleet for what they described as egregious maintenance deficiencies, the Federal Aviation Administration has settled for a $1 million civil fine, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.
The fine is part of a plan to help the cargo carrier quickly resume flying, the article said. The company has been using subcontractors for its deliveries since August 13.
A six-page agreement between the FAA and Emery, the country’s fourth-largest air-cargo hauler, sets the stage for Emery’s aircraft to return to the air by early next year once the carrier revamps its maintenance organization, inspections, record-keeping and training programs, the report said.
The 31-point plan, calling for an FAA team to assist Emery on “an expedited basis,” requires the carrier to implement procedural and operational safeguards similar to those usually required of airlines before they first launch their services.
According to the newspaper, under the settlement agreement, the company didn’t acknowledge any violations, and the FAA said it wanted to avoid “the burden and expense of possible future protracted litigation.”
FAA officials agreed to hold off formal enforcement actions against the company, despite finding what they previously described as more than 100 maintenance lapses, including widespread instances of “ineffective or inappropriate repairs” along with failures to deal with repetitive pilot write-ups of the same problem on the same aircraft.
The cargo airline has six months to make the improvements, though it isn’t slated to pay the final installment of the fine until March 2003, the article said. If the FAA determines after eight months that Emery hasn’t made the necessary changes, it will be free to institute formal enforcement actions.
It isn’t clear what it will cost Emery to carry out the changes, and some company officials recently told local pilot-union representatives the carrier eventually may opt to close down. The agreement signed last week, however, said Emery “desires to resume commercial” operations “at the earliest possible date consistent” with the latest safety and maintenance guidelines, the report said.
A federal arbitrator is considering claims by Emery’s pilots that they were illegally furloughed. The pilots claim they should continue to be paid because the airline failed to heed advance warnings of potential FAA moves to shut it down.
Emery wouldn’t comment on whether it plans to resume flying, or instead to continue relying on subcontractors it turned to when it grounded its fleet last month, the article said.
The agreement doesn’t affect a continuing criminal probe of Emery’s cargo-handling procedures. A federal grand jury in Dayton, Ohio, has been considering possible criminal charges related to Emery’s handling of hazardous cargo.
