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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993                   TAG: 9304030045
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

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FAA BANS AIRLINES FOR SAFETY REASONS

Fourteen foreign airlines have been barred from U.S. airports for safety reasons in the past two years, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

FAA officials said it was the first time the government had barred foreign airlines for not meeting safety standards, as opposed to political reasons. They said the ban was not announced publicly when it was imposed because U.S. officials did not want to embarrass the airlines' home countries.

The banned airlines include Air Belize, Regal Air of Antigua and Central American Airlines of Nicaragua, spokesman Hank Price said. He said the FAA would not disclose the names of the other 11 because the agency is working with them to improve their safety standards.

The ban, reported in Friday's Washington Post and New York Times, was prompted by the 1990 crash of a Colombian jetliner that ran out of fuel while waiting to land at New York's Kennedy International Airport, killing 73 people and injuring more than 100. The Avianca crash prompted an FAA investigation of all 475 foreign airlines that fly into U.S. airports.

The agency has investigated the airline safety programs of 24 countries and found 14 of them had deficient pilot training, deficient aircraft maintenance or other safety problems, Price said. The problem airlines all are based in underdeveloped countries; some of them specialize in offering cheap fares to Americans. - Associated Press

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