The Center for Public Integrity

Revelations that Southwest Airlines flew thousands of flights in violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directives brought to light a “relaxed culture” of oversight that investigators later termed “symptomatic of much deeper problems.” When the airline industry and the FAA agreed in the 1990s to work together on safety, their new joint programs depended on “the integrity of the people using them,” the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG) told Congress in April 2008. But separate probes by the OIG, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee found alarming evidence that the necessary integrity was often missing, and that relationships between airlines and FAA inspectors were often far too cozy. In the case of Southwest Airlines, investigators eventually concluded that 46 of its aircraft flew more than 60,000 flights in violation of FAA directives before officially notifying the agency — and then even flew another 1,451 miles after notification. When Southwest voluntarily notified the FAA that its fleet had fuselage problems on March 15, 2007, the responsible FAA supervisor failed to ground the aircraft for the next eight days. Two FAA whistleblowers told congressional investigators of a close relationship between the supervisor and Southwest’s compliance manager. One whistleblower, FAA inspector Douglas E. Peters, alleged that the supervisor allowed Southwest to continue flying for two weeks after the agency discovered a problem with rudders on Southwest planes. An oversight committee report further asserted that FAA took no follow-up action to ensure that Southwest aircraft had been brought into compliance with federal law until the agency learned of the congressional investigations nearly eight months later.

To compile this list of the most important federal failures of the past eight years, a team of 13 reporters sifted through hundreds of inspectors general reports, Government Accountability Office assessments, congressional oversight investigations, and news stories. The team interviewed dozens of experts, congressional staffers, and leaders of government watchdog organizations and sent e-mails to more than 4,800 federal government employees to solicit nominations for inclusion in this project. Some 250 failures were nominated, from which editors selected more than 125 — those that elicited some level of bipartisan criticism, but also had a discernible impact on ordinary people.

The Team

Editorial Team:
Bill Buzenberg, executive director
David E. Kaplan, editorial director
Gordon Witkin, managing editor
Josh Israel, project coordinator
Tom Stites, consulting editor
Michael Zuckerman, consulting editor

Reporting Team:
Katherine Aaron, Sara Bularzik, Te-Ping Chen, Caitlin Ginley, Andrew Green, M. Asif Ismail, Josh Israel, Sarah Laskow, Marianne Lavelle, Matt Lewis, Aaron Mehta, Nick Schwellenbach, Kate Willson

Fact-checking:
Laura Cheek, Joe Eaton, Caitlin Ginley, Aaron Mehta, Peter Smith

Copy-editing:
Sara Bularzik, Andrew Green, Ariel Olson Surowidjojo

Web Design:
Stephen Rountree, www.rountreegraphics.com
Top Dead Center Design, www.tdcdesign.com

Technical Team:
David Donald
Andrew Green
Tuan Lee
Jeremy Lewis
Ariel Olson Surowidjojo

Media Team:
Steve Carpinelli
The Hatcher Group, www.thehatchergroup.com