David Hinson

CNN - June 25, 1996 Web posted at: 9:02 p.m. EDT

FAA chief to leave by year's end
Hearings into ValuJet crash focus on maintenance

WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - "After admitting that the Federal Aviation Administration has not done an adequate job of investigating concerns of fast-growing, low-cost carriers such as ValuJet Airlines, FAA Administrator David Hinson said he would leave his post at the end of the year."

"We should have done a better job of helping ValuJet with maintaining infrastructure."-David Hinson, FAA administrator testifying before a Congressional                                   transportation sub-committee in June 1996.

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Wall Street Journal, March 2, 1998

"How Major Overhaul of Air-Trafic Control Lost Its Momentum"

WASHINGTON- "On a summer morning in 1994, Federal Aviation Administration chief David Hinson looked to the heavens and saw salvation from the congestion afflicting U.S. air travel.

With great fanfare, the administrator announced that he was calling for hastened development of a $400 million to $500 million network of ground stations that would enable commercial aircraft to rely on military satellite signals as navigation guides. The new technology, scheduled to start operating by the end of 1997, would save money and reduce the risks in America's increasingly crowded skies.

'It's phenomenal', Mr Hinson said of the system... 'We're no longer studying,' he added. 'We're ready to start building.'

Four years later, the building has barely begun. Projections of the system's costs have skyrocketed and are now many times Mr. Hinson's original public estimates."