Editorial: FAA employees abuse privileges

The Transportation Department's inspector general released a report Tuesday charging that an in-flight training program for FAA employees has instead deteriorated into a program that lets employees get free flights to vacation destinations.

The FAA training program was intended to provide air traffic controllers and other employees an opportunity to ride in a cockpit. This training would allow the controllers and flight crews to discuss and evaluate air traffic control services, communications and other in-flight problems.

"Unfortunately, (the program) has evolved over a period of years from this laudable purpose to one where the 'training' objective is often a pretense for controllers and other FAA personnel, including managers, to get free travel to resort, vacation and personal leave destinations of their choice," Inspector General Kenneth Mead wrote in his report.

It's not as if FAA employees hadn't been warned already. An inspector general's report in 1996 charged that employees and their spouses were traveling to vacation spots, making extended weekends on some of their visits.

The FAA has come under criticism for having a cozy relationship with the airline industry and for not being aggressive in enforcing airline safety. The practice of some FAA employees taking advantage of their public duties for personal gain will do nothing to help instill confidence.

The FAA says it is trying to put a halt to such travel, but the agency and the air traffic controllers' union disagree whether these flights violate ethics laws. The dispute has been turned over to the Federal Labor Relations Authority to resolve. Common sense says this abuse should end.

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