Raab v. Blakely

370 F. App'x 303
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedMarch 16, 2010
DocketNo. 07-3745
StatusPublished

This text of 370 F. App'x 303 (Raab v. Blakely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Raab v. Blakely, 370 F. App'x 303 (3d Cir. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

STAPLETON, Circuit Judge:

The Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) revoked Michael C. Raab’s mechanic’s inspection authorization (“IA”) after an aircraft that he inspected and approved for return to service crashed, killing the pilot. An Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) of the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) affirmed the decision of the FAA, and the full NTSB affirmed the ALJ’s initial determination. Raab petitions for review of the order of the NTSB. We will deny the petition.

[305]*305I.

Raab performed an annual inspection of a Cessna 310Q airplane, civil registration number N8FH (“the Aircraft”), and he documented seventy-seven discrepancies on the Aircraft. Raab refused to sign off on the inspection until the discrepancies were addressed and the necessary repairs were made. Discrepancy number 47 stated “elevator trim barrel worn beyond allowable limits.” This language referred to a part called an elevator trim tab actuator, which is part of an airplane’s flight control system that reduces the aerodynamic forces on the main controls while in flight. When Raab noted discrepancy number 47, he had only visually inspected the actuator, but had yet to perform any tests on it.

Raab used the Cessna 310Q maintenance manual checklist when he performed the inspection, and he entered check marks on the checklist when he finished inspecting each item. On this checklist, which he was using for his own purposes and which was admittedly not meant to convey any information to anyone else, Raab entered a check mark next to “Elevator and Elevator Trim,” meaning that he had inspected the trim tab actuator and found it airworthy.1 This was due to the fact that after he visually inspected the actuator and noted discrepancy number 47, he performed a more detailed inspection and determined that the bearing that was part of the rear horizontal stabilizer on the actuator was indeed within allowable limits.

Five months later, Raab returned to follow up, and he did a walk-around and visually checked all of the items on the discrepancy list. With reference to the elevator trim tab actuator, Raab checked the controls of the Aircraft by hand, but he did not physically inspect the actuator itself, because on his checklist, he had marked it as having already been inspected and found airworthy. . After completing his follow-up work, Raab signed off on the inspection, certified the Aircraft as airworthy, and returned it to service. When the owner of the Aircraft arrived just over a week later to fly it back to his base, however, it crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the owner.

FAA Inspectors Thomas Mancuso and Daniel Spera inspected the wreckage the day after the accident, and Inspector Man-cuso observed that the cables going to the elevator trim tab actuator were crossed, meaning that the part was rigged backwards. If the actuator cables are rigged incorrectly, the control works backwards, so that when the pilot pulls back on the yoke, the actuator tends to pull the yoke forward. Inspector Mancuso could not tell from his inspection when the elevator trim tab actuator and its cables were installed or whether Raab had performed a test during his inspection to determine whether the actuator was functioning properly. After conducting his investigation, Inspector Spera, the reporting inspector for this crash, opined that the accident occurred because the elevator trim tab actuator was rigged incorrectly.

Raab told Inspector Spera that he did not install the elevator trim tab actuator himself, but that ■ instead a mechanic named Kevin Sisti installed the part without Raab’s knowledge, and Raab did not know about this installation until the day after the accident. From this conversation with Raab, Inspector Spera understood that the elevator trim tab actuator was replaced before Raab signed off on the [306]*306inspection. Sisti corroborated this information when he told Inspector Spera that he and his mechanics indeed installed the actuator, that his mechanics rigged the actuator cables, and that this work was done prior to Raab signing off on the inspection, because it was done in preparation for the inspection. Inspector Spera did not find any records in the aircraft maintenance logbook or elsewhere indicating that any work was performed on the Aircraft between the time Raab signed off on the inspection and the time of the crash.

However, there were no entries in the aircraft maintenance logbook indicating that the elevator trim tab actuator was replaced at all, or indicating that a number of other repairs were made to the Aircraft in preparation for the follow-up inspection. The invoice that was prepared for the Aircraft’s owner documenting the work that had been done, though, noted that an actuator was purchased and installed prior to Raab’s second inspection of the Aircraft. Raab did not see this invoice for the annual inspection before he signed off on the Aircraft.

In the end, Inspector Spera opined that while Raab performed a thorough initial inspection of the Aircraft, documenting seventy-seven separate items that needed to be addressed, Raab did not return the Aircraft to service properly, because he did not follow up on these items. Inspector Spera based his opinion on the differences between the Aircraft maintenance logbook, the discrepancy sheets Raab prepared during his initial inspection, and the invoice for the work that was done on the Aircraft in preparation for the follow-up inspection. In Inspector Spera’s opinion, Raab never looked at this paperwork, and instead only asked the mechanics what they did to the Aircraft, and signed off on what they told him. After completing his investigation of the accident, Inspector Spera concluded that Raab was not qualified to hold an IA, based on Raab’s performance concerning the annual inspection of the Aircraft.

The FAA issued an emergency order revoking Raab’s IA, pursuant to the governing statute, 49 U.S.C. § 44709(b). The order alleged that Raab improperly signed off on an annual inspection on the aircraft and approved its return to service when the aircraft was in an unairworthy condition, in violation of 14 C.F.R. §§ 43.13(a), 43.13(b), and 43.15(a)(1). Raab appealed the FAA’s order to the NTSB, and an ALJ conducted an evidentiary hearing, at which Inspector Mancuso, Inspector Spera, and Raab testified. On the second day of the hearing, Raab testified that two expert witnesses he intended to call were not present, because, according to Raab, the FAA contacted the witnesses’ employer, and the employer threatened to terminate the witnesses if they testified on behalf of Raab. Raab sought to have Inspector Spera’s testimony stricken from the record as a sanction for what he alleged was a deprivation of his due process rights, but after hearing argument on both sides, the ALJ denied Raab’s request. Ultimately, the ALJ affirmed the order of the FAA. Raab appealed to the full NTSB, and the NTSB issued an order denying Raab’s appeal and affirming the initial decision of the ALJ. Raab now petitions this Court for review of the order of the NTSB.

II.

The NTSB had jurisdiction pursuant to 49 U.S.C. §§ 1133 and 44709(d).

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Bluebook (online)
370 F. App'x 303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/raab-v-blakely-ca3-2010.