By Allison Martell
TORONTO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Regulators threatened to ground
Canada's Porter Airlines over safety problems in 2008, according
to documents reviewed by Reuters, but the matter was kept secret
for years - a sign, some critics say, of how little the public
is told about the safety of Canadian airlines.
The documents, prepared by staff at the federal transport
regulator, show that in early October that year, Canadian
government inspectors scored Porter at only two on a scale of
one to five, where five is best and three indicates
compliance. The threat was first reported in the Canadian media
in 2011 but the score and some of the reasons for it have not
been previously disclosed.
Reuters got access to the documents in June from Transport
Canada, the nation's main transport regulator, under Canada's
Access to Information Act.
Porter had fought for years to prevent Transport Canada from
releasing them in the face of media applications filed under
that law. And while a court ruled against Canada's No. 3 airline
in 2014, the judge still allowed the documents to be heavily
redacted by Transport Canada, meaning that many details are
blacked out.
Porter did not have to suspend flights, and was able to
satisfy the regulator within two months that it had dealt with
its most serious problems.
But the secrecy surrounding the episode has prompted safety
advocates to warn that Transport Canada and Canadian airlines
are keeping the public in the dark about safety questions.
Transport Canada said in response to questions from Reuters
that it has to balance transparency against privacy laws. It
said in a statement that it felt no need to make the warning to
Porter public, and that in the end it was satisfied with the
airline's corrective measures.
"The decision to make a notice of suspension public is made
on a case-by-case basis, and is not taken lightly," it said.
MORE SECRETIVE
Porter pointed out in a statement that the assessment is
nearly seven years old and said it had carried out all required
maintenance work. Porter also said it has increased training and
added investigators as it has expanded.
"The matter in question related to administrative paperwork
and procedural issues that were subsequently addressed by Porter
in a timely, proactive manner to the satisfaction of Transport
Canada," it said. "No operational safety issues were involved."
Greg McConnell, president of the Canadian Federal Pilots
Association union that represents government inspectors,
reviewed the documents concerning Porter, but said it was
difficult to conclude much given the redactions, which was a
concern.
He said the documents show how Transport Canada's work has
changed over his career: "The documentation has become, almost,
very secretive."
Canada was the first country in the world to require that
airlines each create their own safety management system (SMS),
after the approach was endorsed by the United Nations' aviation
agency. The new approach put more emphasis on self-regulation by
airlines, and less on inspections by the regulator. Some
experts, such as McConnell, see that change as part of the
reason for the lack of disclosure.
In Canada, inspectors' reviews now draw much more heavily on
internal reports and data provided by the airlines, and the
regulator does not disclose a lot of that material even when it
receives applications from journalists and others under the
access to information law. Transport Canada staff who handle
such requests will often heavily redact the information in
safety-related documents that they do release, citing the
section of the law that protects trade secrets.
Recent evaluations of a number of Canadian airlines,
including WestJet WJA.TO and closely-held Arctic airline First
Air, requested by Reuters under the law, have come back with all
of Transport Canada's conclusions and the evidence they were
based on blacked out.
There are no indications either airline has serious
problems, but the redactions make it impossible to make an
independent assessment.
"WestJet requested redactions in the recent Transport Canada
audit report because we believe more background and context is
needed to fully understand the culture of safety at our
airline," the airline said in a statement. It said the audit
found administrative issues that were quickly corrected.
First Air CEO Brock Friesen said transparency was in the
public's best interest: "We did not request these redactions
from TC, especially since the document in question is showing
minor findings, largely administrative in nature," he said in an
emailed statement.
Transport Canada said in a statement that it releases
information under access to information "in a way that is
compliant with the provisions of the law."
Ken Rubin, a Canadian safety advocate and researcher, says
the increased "self-policing" has been bad for transparency. "I
can tell you that when I first applied in the early '80s for air
inspection reports and audits, I used to get them," he said.
"They became less accessible."
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The SMS approach was designed to improve safety, ensuring
that airlines find and fix problems before they cause an
accident, and take broad responsibility for improving safety
instead of just following the direction of regulators.
SMS, which will be mandatory for most U.S. airlines in 2018,
also can keep a regulator's inspection costs under control, an
important consideration as the airline industry continues to
grow rapidly across the globe. A 2013 report from Canada's
Library of Parliament, the research arm of Canada's parliament,
said the adoption of SMS was being driven partly by regulators'
"limited resources."
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said that calling
SMS self-regulation is a "basic misunderstanding." It said the
change will make airlines more proactive, giving them processes
to identify and reduce risk, without relaxing existing
protections.
"SMS requires compliance with technical standards but also
promotes a safety culture to improve the overall performance of
the organization," the FAA said in a statement, adding that SMS
will not replace FAA inspections and audits.
Before the new system, there were examples of greater
disclosure. In 1996, Transport Canada issued a notice of
suspension to then-new WestJet, threatening to ground the
airline unless it fixed problems with its maintenance system.
The department put out a news release, and the airline, now
Canada's No. 2 carrier, chose to briefly suspend flights, though
it disputed the findings.
Some support SMS in principle, but criticize its
implementation. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB),
a federal watchdog agency, has praised SMS, saying it can help
companies manage risk.
But the TSB has also cited major concerns, highlighting
crashes and near-misses that came after Transport Canada failed
to identify problems with companies' safety processes. One case
it cited was a 2011 First Air crash in northern Canada, which
killed 12 people. Upon investigation, the TSB found problems
with First Air's safety management system.
Transport Canada said it takes the TSB's recommendations
very seriously, and has made "significant progress" to address
the board's concerns, but did not offer any detail on what it
has changed.
In Porter's case, Transport Canada inspectors said the
airline was taking too long to address potential safety problems
flagged by its employees. Inspectors issued a notice of
suspension, warning the airline that its operating certificate
could be revoked if it did not fulfill several conditions.
"Your organization has demonstrated that your maintenance
program and maintenance system does not meet the minimum
regulatory requirements," said Transport Canada in 2008 in a
letter to Porter CEO Robert Deluce that has not been previously
disclosed.
Porter said its most recent Transport Canada evaluation in
2014 had no negative findings. But it declined to share that
report, saying public disclosure can lead to misunderstandings.
"We believe that overall passenger safety is best served by
ensuring that our team members freely report safety matters
without worrying about repercussions of being associated with
public reports," it said.