WASHINGTON — The government is proposing close to $1 million in fines against Alaska Airlines, charging maintenance violations.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced this week it is seeking to levy two civil penalties totaling $988,500. Alaska Air has 30 days to respond.
Alaska Air has been under intense scrutiny since one of its planes crashed Jan. 31 into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast and killed all 88 aboard.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not determined the cause of that disaster, but suspicion has fallen on mechanical controls in the tail.
After an inspection of the airline's maintenance work, the FAA threatened in May to bar Alaska from doing heavy maintenance on its planes. That would have grounded the airline until maintenance procedures were improved.
That penalty was not imposed, but the FAA has been monitoring the airline's maintenance procedures closely. In June the airline's top maintenance official took early retirement.
Alaska Airlines spokesman Jack Evans said the proposed fines were based on a special inspection of the airline, and the company believes that problems raised by that special inspection have already been addressed.
According to the agency, on April 12, the airline returned an MD-80 to service after a maintenance check even though problems either had not been fixed or were improperly repaired.
The discrepancies included an air-conditioning temperature valve, a refueling bay that failed to shut off automatically when the tank was full, a hydraulic leak in the main wheel well, a fuel leak at the center tank valve fuel panel and passenger oxygen generators that were due to be changed, the FAA said.
It said that as a result of that incident, the agency decided to audit the maintenance records of all Alaska Air planes that had been returned to service after heavy maintenance.
The audit found that at least 21 of the airline's 737 and MD-80 aircraft were returned to service with incomplete maintenance records, the agency said.
The FAA said that on April 8, a Boeing 737 allegedly was operated with a glideslope that had previously failed a self-test. The glideslope, an instrument that provides vertical guidance, was improperly cleared for service by an unqualified mechanic, the FAA charged.
The agency also said that from April 20, 1999, to April 8, 2000, Alaska allegedly operated one 737 and two MD-80 aircraft with maintenance improperly deferred on items under its minimum equipment list, including a drain valve power circuit breaker and a stair light.
The other civil penalty is a proposed fine of $110,000 against the carrier for allegedly operating a MD-80 aircraft on at least 1,300 flights without a properly functioning flight data recorder.