Nearly 60 percent of the emergency orders revoked or suspended pilot certificates or the medical certificates pilots must also have. Of the cases FAA initiated using emergency orders, over three-quarters ultimately resulted in a suspension or revocation of the certificate. FAA’s Increased Use of Administrative Actions Resulted in a Larger Proportion of Emergency Certificate Actions

Of the 137,506 enforcement cases closed in fiscal years 1990 through 1997, FAA initiated 3 percent using emergency orders. As FAA shifted to using administrative actions to handle less serious enforcement cases, its use of certificate actions decreased. Regional Use of Certificate Actions and Emergency Orders Varied

FAA used emergency orders to initiate 18 percent of its certificate action cases, on average, for fiscal years 1990 through 1997, but three regions initiated from 28 to 38 percent of their certificate actions using emergency orders. Of the emergency orders, nearly 60 percent affected pilots by revoking or suspending 1,563 pilot certificates and 625 medical certificates. Most Certificate Actions Initiated Using Emergency Orders Resulted in Revocations or Suspensions

A high percentage of the certificate actions initiated using emergency orders ultimately resulted in revocations or suspensions. FAA informally implemented this policy change in 1990 and 1991 before formally incorporating it into FAA Order 2150.3A in February 1992. As a result, FAA increased the use of emergency orders to initiate revocations from 184 in fiscal year 1990 to between 264 and 382 annually thereafter. For Half of the Enforcement Cases That Involved Emergency Orders, More Than 4 Months Elapsed Between FAA’s Learning of the Violation and Issuing the Emergency Order

For half of the enforcement cases in which FAA used emergency orders in fiscal years 1990 through 1997, more than 4 months elapsed between the time FAA learned of the violation and the time it issued the emergency order. During this time, a certificate holder who lacks qualifications or who represents a threat to safety can continue to operate. FAA Regions Varied Widely in the Number of Days Used to Investigate Violations and Issue Emergency Orders

FAA regions varied widely in the number of days used to investigate the violations that led to the issuance of emergency orders in fiscal years 1990 through 1997. However, NTSB has no deadline for initiating cases when an individual’s basic qualifications to hold the operating certificate are in question. Very few of these cases are later dropped because FAA determines that no violation was committed or has insufficient evidence to prove a violation. We discussed our findings, the circumstances under which FAA uses emergency orders, and changes to FAA Order 2150.3A that might have affected the agency’s use of emergency orders for fiscal years 1990 through 1997 with the following FAA personnel: the Assistant Chief Counsel and other staff in FAA’s Enforcement Division, all nine counsels in FAA’s regions, the Acting Director of the Flight Standards Service and members of his staff, the Manager of the Compliance and Enforcement Branch in the Civil Aviation Security Division, and the managers of the Medical Specialties and Aeromedical Certification Divisions in the Office of Aviation Medicine.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) use of emergency orders during fiscal years 1990 through 1997, focusing on: (1) the extent to which FAA used emergency orders, including data on regional variation in their use, the types of certificate holders affected, and the final outcomes of cases initiated using emergency orders; (2) the ways in which changes in FAA's policies might have affected the agency's use of emergency orders; and (3) the time needed for FAA to investigate alleged violations and issue emergency orders.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) FAA used emergency orders to initiate action to revoke or suspend operating certificates in 3 percent (3,742) of the 137,506 enforcement cases closed during fiscal years 1990 through 1997; (2) as FAA moved to handling less serious enforcement cases through administrative actions rather than certificate actions, the number of certificate actions decreased, and emergency orders came to represent a larger proportion of the more serious certificate actions that remained, increasing from 10 percent in 1990 to an annual average of nearly 20 percent over the following 7 years; (3) emergency orders as a percentage of certificate actions varied by FAA region, resulting from differences in enforcement practices and from unusual circumstances in an individual case; (4) in fiscal years 1990 through 1997, nearly 60 percent of the emergency orders revoked or suspended pilots' operating certificates or the certificates of their medical fitness to fly; (5) FAA initiated a substantially higher proportion of certificate actions with emergency orders for pilots with commercial operating certificates than for air transport pilots; (6) over three-quarters of the enforcement cases initiated using emergency orders resulted in the suspension or revocation of the certificate holder's operating certificate, and fewer than 5 percent resulted ultimately in FAA's dropping the case because it determined that no violation was committed or had insufficient evidence to prove a violation; (7) during fiscal years 1990 through 1997, FAA implemented a formal change in its policy on emergency actions that is reflected in the increased number of revocations using emergency orders; (8) in 1990, FAA decided that, for those cases in which revocations are based on a demonstrated lack of qualification to hold the relevant certificate, the certificate generally should be revoked immediately and not after the lengthy appeal process that other nonemergency certificate actions can be subject to; (9) FAA informally implemented this policy change in 1990 and 1991 before formally incorporating it into its compliance and enforcement guidance in 1992; (10) FAA initiated 184 revocations using emergency orders in fiscal year 1990, after which this number increased, ranging between 264 and 382 annually; and (11) although the use of emergency orders is intended to expedite the handling of serious enforcement of cases in which operating certificates are revoked or suspended, the time needed for FAA to investigate violations and issue emergency orders varied widely.