In reference to any documentation that has been generated thus far let's review what transpired:
The crew passed. The only failure was the flawed deployment of a rear door. R5 I believe.
After the test the statement was "this was not a successful test but you didn't fail".
The manufacturer of the slide wrote a detailed letter saying Baltia performed admirably. That the slide malfunction was the fault of the packer. I believe the Thursday after the test the FAA and Baltia opened another slide and it too was defective.
This was video taped as was the mini,and added to the document package that went DIRECT to DC.
An important signatory has been out of town for some time and returned yesterday.
There is specific guidance that states that if equipment fails (slide) during the mini evac and the crew and plane perform as needed then it is not a fail.
There are rules that must be followed. The FAA has tremendous responsibility to protect the public and the industry. They have to make absolutely sure that the airline complies. They must comfortably be able to hang their hat on a substantial guideline to justify their position.
I am sure that yesterday and today and maybe a good portion of the week is spent reviewing the video, the reports and other related information to conclude that we are indeed capable of being certified.
In my mind and the mind of many the only way we do not get a pass is if the forces that be are indeed from the dark side.
It seems inconceivable that we get a fail if the only thing that failed was the slide and the failure was due to shoddy workmanship and not something Baltia had control over.
Everything looks good for us. We did our job. We could have retested the next day and the other slide that was opened would have failed. It is not our job to police the vendors at our expense. We are not testing vendors, we are testing our competency which seems to get better every time.
Currently the team is in Florida supervising the repacking of the slides used so we can be ready for our proving runs. It's amazing to me that we have to PERSONALLY supervise the packing of the slides to avoid poor quality workmanship or worse.
Again the FAAs job is to keep the skies safe, not prohibit airlines from getting certified. This will be a huge feather in their cap getting two airlines certified in 2015. Eastern and Baltia. The FAA wants success too. They depend on success for raises and promotions. It also shows the public that they do more than just investigate plane crashes and direct air traffic which in itself is a monumental task.
