FAA Closes Safety Investigations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that Had Prompted Record Fines

Jul. 2—CLEVELAND, Ohio — The federal government has closed its investigations into safety concerns about snow and ice removal at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that led the FAA to threaten record fines.

In a letter this week to Robert Kennedy, Cleveland's chief of airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said that changes made at the airport since the FAA and Cleveland entered a settlement plan five years ago warranted an end to its monitoring as of July 1.

"The city of Cleveland has made substantial improvements in the processes, equipment, staffing, and management of the implementation of the snow and ice control plan," wrote Susan Mowery-Schiak, the director of the FAA's airports division.

"We agree that CLE is establishing a safety culture that would allow it to sustain its compliance," Mowery-Schiak wrote. "In consideration ... the FAA hereby releases the city of Cleveland from the conditions of the [settlement] and will close the four related FAA enforcement investigations."

The FAA slapped Cleveland Hopkins International Airport with $735,000 in fines in 2015 for failing to adequately staff snow removal teams and deice runways that caused unsafe conditions and forced planes to divert to other airports.

The city-owned airport also failed to alert air carriers of the poor conditions and deter planes from taxiing or landing on slick, hazardous surfaces, the FAA said then.

The allegations were contained in four letters that listed dozens of dates from 2013 to 2015 when staffing at Hopkins fell far short of requirements. The letters were sent to the acting airports director, Fred Szabo, who no longer works in the airport system.

Cleveland and the FAA agreed to a settlement in May 2016 in the city pledged to make improvements in how it operated. In exchange, the FAA agreed to reduce the proposed fine to $200,000, which was a record.

Kennedy, who took over as airports director in January 2017, wrote to the FAA this May, reporting that the city had made significant improvements and had fully complied with the 2016 agreement. This week's letter from the FAA was the federal agency's reply.

In an email Thursday to all employees for the city's Division of Port Control, which oversees Hopkins and Burke Lakefront Airport, Kennedy said the FAA decision was a cause for celebration.

"This is a great day for our entire team," Kennedy said.

"As we assessed the issues that occurred ... the Airport team undertook several steps to exceed requirements, by adopting recognized industry standards and recommended best practices, including enhanced training, updated policies and procedures," Kennedy wrote.

"As CLE continues to embrace these best practices, we have developed objectives that will keep a just safety culture at the forefront of all we do," Kennedy wrote. "I thank all of you, and we will plan to celebrate in the near future."

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