Originally Posted by
OddballM4
Not really germane to the rampant speculation on this event; but...
Gov employee here (not FAA or NTSB, but another federal safety regulator). While 17+ years seems kind of long in my experience (has she really been an actor in that role for that length of time, or are you extrapolating her time in service with the FAA to that one position - people do move around a lot in Fed agencies), acting managers are a fact of life in government service. It takes time to post, interview, hire (most often from within) for a management position in a Fed agency. Also, there are generally time limits on how long one can act in a higher-graded position without receiving the higher-grade pay.
Most of us - even the managers - are competent professionals just trying to do our part to serve the public. This even applies to the political appointees (although I'll grant it 's become more of an exception in the last year or so
). I thought Chairman Sumwalt did a fine job in the media briefing posted earlier.
Back to lurking. Thanks to the many professionals who make this site such an engaging read for this wanna-be aviator.
Just to clarify, Ms Grant has been in the Engine and Propeller Standards branch of the FAA for 15 plus years. She appears to have assumed the duties of acting Director after the death of the previous manager in 2015.
Climber314 seemed to imply that her "acting" status may have been due to fallout from the SW accident and I was just pointing out that most of the FAA senior management is in acting positions.