UPDATE

FAA Says ECLIPSE 500 JET
OK to Fly

Did Not Rush Plane Into Service Certification: A-OK

(September 15th, 2008 9:00AM PST)

By Eric Longabardi

The Federal Aviation Administration released the results of its special 30-day certification review of the Eclipse 500 jet last Friday.  You can view the results here:

The Eclipse 500 jet has come under intense scrutiny for what internal FAA critics claim was the agency rushing the jet into service before all safety concerns were properly addressed. The Dept. of Transportation’s Inspector General investigated the FAA certification of the jet. The IG's report is slated to be the focus of a Congressional Hearing this Wednesday in Washington.  Details on the hearing can be seen here:

 

UPDATE

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS
SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE
FAA CERTIFICATION
OF ECLIPSE 500 JET

By Eric Longabardi

 

As ERSNews first reported this past July, questions about the safety of a new small business jet and how it was certified to fly by the FAA are growing.

The powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar has set a hearing on September 17th to address allegations that the new Eclipse 500 business jet was improperly approved to fly by the FAA.

The hearings come on the heals of a recent Inspector General investigation into the FAA's approval process for the plane. At the center of the case are allegations from FAA inspectors, who filed a grievance over how the plane was certified in late 2006, citing "several outstanding safety/regulatory issues"

In addition, the FAA just announced this week it has begun a re-review of the Eclipse 500. The rare move, known as a "Special Certification Review" (SCR) is widely regarded by aviation experts as a response to Congressional and Inspector General interest in the previous circumstances of how the jet was approved to fly. The (SCR) announcement by the FAA can be seen here.

 

BREAKING NEWS:

EXCLUSIVE

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ECLIPSE 500

INSPECTOR GENERAL INVESTIGATING

HOW THE FAA CERTIFIED AIRPLANE

AS SAFE TO FLY AGAINST THE

WISHES OF ITS OWN INSPECTORS

(July 8th, 2008 9:00PM PST)

 

ERSNews has learned that in Washington DC, investigators from the Dept. of Transportation Inspector General have met with an FAA Inspector. At the center of this meeting are allegations that the FAA improperly rushed through the certification of the Eclipse 500, a new small business jet that the FAA approved to fly in September, 2006.

The FAA Inspector, who was a part of the “Flight Standardization Board” that evaluated the Eclipse 500 Jet in 2006, will, according to sources close to the investigation, tell investigators that he and another FAA inspector recommended the plane not be certified without further testing because of safety issues.

The Inspectors claims against their FAA bosses were outlined in a union grievance they filed against their FAA managers in October of 2006. In that grievance they say that for "reasons unknown to them" the plane was granted approval by the FAA in the Forth Worth, Texas, “without allowing the aircraft certification engineers and flight-test pilots to properly complete their assigned certification/safety responsibilities.”