Law & Justice & aircraft firegeezer on 19 Jun 2008 12:11 pm
Air Trek Grounded For Good
AIR TREK, ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST AND LARGEST AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES, has had its operating license revoked.
In late February, Firegeezer reported HERE on a surprise raid by Federal authorities on Air Trek’s main offices in Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Florida. Following an investigation into Air Trek’s maintenance records and operating practices, the FAA at first suspended their operating license on May 23.
Air Trek had three crashes in three years’ time resulting in six fatalities. In addition, it was discovered that their maintenance records were not in accord with their actual practices. On June 5 the FAA inspectors attempted to conduct further inspections of their aircraft at the Punta Gorda airport and were denied access to the planes. The inspectors were asked to vacate the firm’s property.
As a result of these actual and attemped inspections, the FAA has determined that Air Trek “is unable or unwilling to maintain operational control of its air carrier operations” and that they are “unable or unwilling to operate to the highest degree of safety….” The agency then fully revoked Air Trek’s operational authority on June 10.
The FAA’s emergency revocation letter cited 14 air traffic safety regulation violations, including flying aircraft that had not been deemed safe, failure to follow weight guidelines, deceptively recording maintenance shortfalls, allowing pilots to make international flights without proper training or certification, and letting pilots fly after they had failed required tests.
You can read the entire 34-page letter at the airtrek1 watchdog group’s website HERE (.pdf format).
Air Trek employs about 50 pilots and physicians and is currently down to 8 aircraft. They were licensed to fly to anyplace in the Western Hemisphere including Cuba. A large portion of their business was Dept. of Defense contracts to transport sick and injured military personnel.
Clicking on Air Trek’s WEBSITE brings up an “under construction” message. The aforementioned watchdog group’s website has a large body of information about the firm and its operations HERE.
on 24 Jun 2008 at 9:44 pm 1.Patrick Whitehead said …
N280AT’s crash resulted in 7 fatalities, 6 in the aircraft and 1 one the ground. Just thought you should have the facts as complete as possible.
on 13 Jul 2008 at 12:48 pm 2.chrid Dion said …
As a former employee of Air Trek i can tel you that this company, through it’s cooperate culture that was mentioned in the faa revocation, lied to many people and all employees , about the safety of their aircraft, and apparently about the causes of at least two of the crashes.
on 20 Jul 2008 at 2:36 am 3.charlie chan said …
Im glad to see my web site put to good use.
on 23 Jul 2008 at 9:17 pm 4.rooster cockburn said …
on 13 Jul 2008 at 12:48 pm 2.chrid Dion said …
As a former employee of Air Trek i can tel you that this company, through it’s cooperate culture that was mentioned in the faa revocation, lied to many people and all employees , about the safety of their aircraft, and apparently about the causes of at least two of the crashes.
thats funny, even through all these allegations, your fat azz was still flying 5 times a week. keep talking shiznit, you still loved that paycheck!!!
on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:48 am 5.Anti Air Trek said …
Interesting website…I see the personal attacks have already started here as well. NICE!
on 22 Sep 2008 at 8:14 am 6.Concern fo Safety said …
I would like to let the pilots and medical crews that were based at Winchestre, Virginia, know that I appreciated your safety and dedication to each mission. You were working and flying each mission with your hands tied behind your back by the company management. I heard you often telling the corp HQ that there were things wrong with the A/C, only to be told that it was not an issue or was on the list of things to do next trip to Flordia. I was on two of the flights that involved engine failures, one being caused by a deice boot seperating from the wing and being ingested into the engine. The boot was being held on by duct tape for a trip to Europe. Doors seals that had to have O2 tubing put into the cracks and H2O poured into the crack to freeze so we could get propoer pressurization, by the medical crews. No wonder the DOD stopped using us. The company had great potential, but was poorly managed and maintained. Brow beating and intimidation was not uncommon. The flight crews were told to put down any concerns on paper and present them, a pilot did so and was immiediatley let go.