<story><title>With lax oversight, the FAA has enabled secrecy in the skies</title><url>https://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/secrets-in-the-sky/series/part-one/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jpatokal</author><text>The FAA does, however, exercise very strict oversight in other areas...&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The FAA inspector looked at my random drug testing program to make sure that everything was in place. I [a one-man helicopter charter company] am subject to the same drug testing requirements as United Airlines. I am the drug testing coordinator for our company, so I am responsible for scheduling drug tests and surprising employees when it is their turn to be tested. As it happens, I’m also the only “safety-sensitive employee” subject to drug testing, so basically I’m responsible for periodically surprising myself with a random drug test. As a supervisor, I need to take training so that I can recognize when an employee is on drugs. But I’m also the only employee, so really this is training so that I can figure out if I myself am on drugs. As an employee, I need to take a second training course so that I learn about all of the ways that my employer might surprise me with a random drug test and find out about drug use. But I’m also the employer so really I’m learning about how I might trap myself.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Five minutes after the FAA inspector left, I received a phone call. “I’m from the FAA and we’d like to schedule an audit of your drug testing program.” I remarked that a fully qualified FAA inspector was barely out of the driveway and had just gone through every document that I had on the subject. “He was from the FSDO (Flight Standards District Office)? That’s a completely different department. We’re going to send two inspectors up from Atlanta next month.” Why two? “We always send them in pairs.” What did they want? “We’re going to fax you a detailed list of all of the information that we need and you should immediately contact your drug testing provider (Lexis&amp;#x2F;Nexis) to tell them that you’re being audited. There is a bunch of information that you can get only from them. As soon as you get the fax, you should re-fax it to Lexis&amp;#x2F;Nexis.” I said that I didn’t have a fax machine, so he promised to send the information via U.S. mail. It could not be emailed.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.harvard.edu&amp;#x2F;philg&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;revitalizing-the-u-s-economy-through-government-spending&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.harvard.edu&amp;#x2F;philg&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;revitalizing-the-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>With lax oversight, the FAA has enabled secrecy in the skies</title><url>https://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/secrets-in-the-sky/series/part-one/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>IncRnd</author><text>There is only a title page that I cannot scroll in chrome.  I&amp;#x27;m not willing to turn off ad blockers, debug this site, or use a different browser to read the story.</text></comment>