The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation are investigating safety allegations at Northwest Airlines raised by Mark Lund, an FAA avionics inspector assigned to Northwest at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, from Northwest Airlines Corp.'s home state of Minnesota, asked the federal agencies to investigate after the Professional Airways Systems Specialists, a union representing FAA inspectors, contacted him with its concerns.
The union charged that about 470 FAA inspectors' reports on Northwest have not been entered into an electronic database since the strike began as previously required and that more than 58% and as many as 90% of those inspectors' reports cited defects, compared to a 3% to 5% defect rate at Northwest before the strike.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey told Sen. Mark Dayton that a thorough investigation will be conducted.
The Department of Transportation inspector general's office has also send an audit investigative team to Minneapolis.
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