CAA accused of forcing out staff who raised safety fears

[JBGA]

Interesting.... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/09/civil-aviation-authority-accused-forcing-out-staff-safety-fears-employment-tribunal

[RVR800]

Pity the CAA staff on the Brexement mire!

[FL370 Officeboy]

Honestly, how many pilots have faith in the CAA? I know I don’t.

[Cows getting bigger]

Well, the employment politics aside, the message is true. The CAA, once a centre of knowledge, is now predominately an organisation of process monkeys. For sure, they pass EASA audits but the Regulator now gets assessed for confirming the font on the speed limit signs rather than looking at those who are actually driving down the road.

Baby, bathwater, bath, drainpipe, bathroom and pretty much everything else. :(

[Mr Angry from Purley]

Honestly, how many pilots have faith in the CAA? I know I don’t.
I do - been dealing with the regulator from the big cheeses to the guys on the shop floor since say 1990. Don't tell me you have no faith because of EASA FTL....#boring
I do agree with t.he comments of the FOI's about dilution absolutely

[Reverserbucket]

I was speaking to a couple of Integrated ATPL students from L3 at Southampton last week who were complaining that they are currently scheduled to fly typically once a week (theoretical knowledge complete so not integrated in the sense of combining ground school with flying). Someone remarked that the CAA should be looking at this very closely and another commented that they don't have the resources to follow up on anything like this. Just what is checked on approval inspections these days?

Also heard of a 'new' FOI at a UK operator (3 months into the job and a non-flying background) training a replacement, again different background and no previous experience. Cant be right, surely?

[old,not bold]

The good people - as far as Safety Regulation is concerned - left the building some time ago, to consultancy, or maybe Baines Simmons or Avisa, This started many years ago, but accelerated with the Quango Queen* and her successors. I have dealt, at different times, with Flt Ops, Aerodromes and Airworthiness since 1980, but more recently primarily with Airworthiness. I have watched all the good people, ie competent regulators who knew their stuff, disappear, leaving a bunch of time-serving incompetents from the very top down to Inspector/Surveyor level. God alone knows how this bunch will manage in the aftermath of Brexit.

*Does anyone remember the QQ giving the intro talk to a Safety Management workshop at the Belgrano back in the mid-noughties, when she lectured 250 senior managers about how frightfully important safety is? She told us all that she knew this from her personal experience of how, she, as the QQ of the Food Standards Agency, had to go along to a chocolate bar manufacturer after a small production error, and jolly well force them to throw away thousands, yes thousands, of contaminated chocolate bars." I think we knew then that the CAA was doomed, and so it has come to pass.

[Ancient Observer]

I am not current with the quality of the FoIs, but in the report, it said that one group of FoIs had been reduced from 8 to 2.
Er, they were undermanned back in 2007. How can they do the work with such low numbers?

[A and C]

The UK CAA is suffering a crisis that is not of its own making, first all the really good people see that there is no future in being a regional office of EASA and go back into the industry or off to EASA HQ and then Brexit turns up and they are faced with regulation of the UK industry when all the experienced people have left the building.

my personal experience has been that all parts of the CAA apart from the pilot side of FCL have always been very helpful with parts of the airworthiness system going well out of their way to assist in some very difficult situations.

[JBGA]

The UK CAA is suffering a crisis that is not of its own making, first all the really good people see that there is no future in being a regional office of EASA and go back into the industry or off to EASA HQ and then Brexit turns up and they are faced with regulation of the UK industry when all the experienced people have left the building.

my personal experience has been that all parts of the CAA apart from the pilot side of FCL have always been very helpful with parts of the airworthiness system going well out of their way to assist in some very difficult circumstances

People are leaving because they are working in a horrible oppressive demoralising environment, they have completely lost faith in the leadership and the direction the CAA is going in and frankly they earn a lot more in industry. It has nothing to do with being a 'regional office of EASA'.

I agree that individuals on the front line are hard working and go out of their way to help. They are working 50-60 hour weeks driving themselves in to the ground because if they don't people like you suffer.

The real issue with the CAA is that the experience is going, the motives are wrong and the safety culture is almost completely broken. Staff now believe the only thing that will fix it is a major accident. What a terrifying situation.

[PFR]

JBGA, your comments are spot on sadly.....

The attached Select Committee Report published in 2006 makes interesting reading looking back. The Conclusions are on Pg60 (note..."We recommend no changes in the present organisational structure"......)

The non-aviation practitioners introduced at CEO, Board and Senior Management level originate from the implementation of this Report (imo incorrectly - it's observations around EASA are also fascinating with 20/20 hindsight)...

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmtran/809/809.pdf