Federal Audit Warns FAA Oversight of United Airlines Is Failing to Meet Safety Demands
A sweeping federal audit has concluded that the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of United Airlines’ maintenance operations is being hindered by inspector shortages, flawed inspection practices and gaps in workforce planning—raising serious questions about whether the agency can effectively monitor one of the largest air carriers in the world.
The February 18, 2026 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General found that the FAA’s oversight of United Airlines is constrained by inadequate inspection resources, ineffective workforce planning and impediments to accessing critical safety data. The review was initiated after several incidents involving United aircraft, including in-flight engine shutdowns and emergency landings, prompted renewed scrutiny of the airline’s maintenance practices.
United Airlines operates roughly 4,865 daily flights, carries more than 160 million passengers annually and maintains a fleet of 994 aircraft. Oversight of this vast operation falls to the FAA’s United Airlines Certificate Management Office, which supervises both domestic and international flight and maintenance activities. As of mid-2025, the office had 74 filled positions out of 111 authorized slots, leaving 37 vacancies—about one-third of its workforce unfilled. Those vacancies include maintenance, avionics and operations inspectors, directly affecting the agency’s ability to conduct required surveillance.
One of the audit’s most concerning findings involves how inspections are handled when staffing or travel resources are unavailable. Instead of postponing inspections using the FAA’s required “Resources Not Available” designation, inspectors have frequently conducted virtual inspections and marked key elements as “not observable.” In 2024 alone, 40 percent of inspections were conducted virtually. In many cases, inspectors marked half or more of required questions as “not observable,” meaning they could not physically verify conditions at maintenance facilities.
The audit found that this practice distorts the FAA’s own risk quantification models. When inspections are properly postponed due to unavailable resources, the system increases an “uncertainty” factor in the airline’s risk profile, signaling the need for future scrutiny. But when inspections proceed virtually and questions are marked “not observable,” that uncertainty is not accurately captured, potentially lowering United’s risk score instead of elevating it. As a result, the FAA cannot ensure that its risk-based decision-making tools accurately reflect real-world oversight gaps.
Staffing shortages are particularly acute for United’s Boeing 737 fleet, which consists of more than 500 aircraft. The CMO has only one avionics Partial Program Manager and one maintenance Partial Program Manager overseeing the entire 737 fleet, supported by two assistants. That workload far exceeds the oversight levels assigned to smaller fleets within United’s operation. With additional 737 aircraft on order through 2033, inspectors warned that the current staffing model is unlikely to keep pace.
The audit also found that required inspections of essential maintenance providers and certain maintenance stations were not consistently completed. In fiscal year 2024, the CMO was unable to complete more than half of required inspections at essential maintenance providers. Several maintenance stations went uninspected for consecutive years, even though FAA policy requires annual reviews for facilities deemed medium criticality.
Beyond staffing and inspection challenges, the report highlighted ongoing issues with the FAA’s oversight of airline Safety Management Systems. Although some prior recommendations to strengthen root cause analysis training and improve SMS evaluation have been addressed, others remain open. Inspectors reported confusion about how to access and review United’s SMS data, and some indicated they were unaware of their authority to request certain records. Limited access to SMS documentation hampers the FAA’s ability to independently verify whether maintenance issues are properly analyzed and corrected.
The audit concluded that until the FAA addresses its staffing shortages, improves workforce planning, clarifies inspection protocols and strengthens inspector training on SMS oversight, maintenance safety risks within United Airlines will remain a concern. The Office of Inspector General issued six recommendations, including revising staffing models, clarifying when inspections must be postponed, improving analytical support for risk models and developing a long-term workforce strategy to address retirements and turnover.
While the FAA agreed with most of the recommendations and committed to corrective actions, the findings underscore a larger issue: oversight of a rapidly expanding airline fleet requires resources and systems that can keep up. Without meaningful structural changes, the agency’s ability to provide consistent, risk-based supervision of one of the nation’s largest carriers may remain stretched thin.
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