E ECUTIVE 

FL!TEWAVS 

ONE CLARK DRIVE, RONKONKOMA, NY 11779 

(631) 588-3480 ext. 128 fax: (631) 588-5527 

March 19, 2014 

Federal Aviation Administration 

800 Independence Avenue, S.W. 

Washington, DC 20591 

Attn: Hearing Docket Clerk, AGC-430 

Wilber Wright Building, Suite 2W1 00 

RE: FAA Case No. 201280950377 

RECEIVED 

MAR 2 6 2014 

HEARING DOCKET 

F"A fl- 2013 ~ I o ~ S 

Please consider this letter Executive Fliteways' Inc. written response to the Complaint 

that we received on March 11, 2014. 

Complaint item number 4. Fliteways failed to conduct random drug and alcohol 

testing in accordance with the procedures set forth in 14 C.F.R. part 120 when 

they did not include mechanic Leon Parra in the random testing pool: Mr. Parra 

received a pre-employmentdrug test and was enrolled in the N.A.D.E. random pool via 

facsimile. For some undetermined reason, Mr. Parra's name did not appear in the 

random pool, however he was continuously under the assumption that he was subject 

to random alcohol and drug testing. 

The 16 months that elapsed between his pre-employment drug test and the recognition 

of our omission was not an uncommon period of time between random tests. Looking 

back since 2010, the average period between random tests for all our covered 

employees is over 30 months! 

Immediately upon recognition of the om1ss1on of Mr. Parra from the random pool, 

Fliteways self-disclosed the apparent omission to the FfiA and sent Mr. Para to a 

testing facility for a random drug test which came back negative. It is Fliteways' 

contention that the inadvertent omission of Mr. Parra in the random testing pool does 

not truly represent a serious safety violation. 

Fliteways has instituted a procedure to preclude this type of error for all future new 

hires. 

Complaint item number 5. Fliteways failed to conduct a drug and alcohol records 

check on Michael Martinez, Peter Schouwenaars, and Leon Parra prior to hiring 

them to perform safety-sensitive functions. Prior to this most recent audit of our 

Drug and Alcohol Testing Program, Fliteways, had never requested drug and alcohol 

records from previous employers for new hire maintenance technicians. In the four 

previous audits of our Drug and Alcohol Testing Program, no mention of this omission 

has ever been cited by any of the auditors. Additionally, until recently, we have never 
received a SINGLE request for the records for any maintenance technician that had left 

our employ and went on to work for other FAR Part 121 or 135 carriers or the Long 

Island Railroad! 

Our procedures manual has been amended to reflect the requirement to obtain these 

records for all future maintenance technicians. All technicians, in addition to their peremployment drug tests were subjected to a Criminal History background check and a 

check of their driver's licenses for any alcohol or drug related violation. All were 

negative. 

Complaint item number 6. Fliteways violated 14 C.F.R. part 120 when they included 

non-safety-sensitive employees in the same random drug and alcohol testing 

pool as DOT covered safety-sensitive employees. It was explained to the auditor 

that each of the individuals listed had unregulated access to company aircraft, were 

authorized to energize aircraft systems and assisted in aircraft towing operations. 

Based on the "spirit" of the law, it seems that these employees did perform safety 

sensitive functions. Consequently, we felt it prudent to conduct pre-employment testing 

and include these employees in the random testing pool. Once again, in all previous 

FAA audits this was never cited as a violation. 

However, the auditor demanded that they be removed from the random pool with which 

we immediately complied. The fact that we incurred the additional expense to include 

these individuals in the testing program should be proof that we take our responsibilities 

to provide our passengers with aircraft operated and maintained by employees that are 

free of the effects of drugs and/or alcohol. 

The three violations that were cited were addressed immediately upon discovery and 

actions have been taken to prevent recurrences. Please advise the date and location of 

the proposed hearing as I look forward to presenting our case that each of these issues 

is of small consequence in regards to ensuring that our workforce is drug free and never 

operating under the influence of alcohol. 

Sincerely, 

# Keo::Z,, 

Dire:t~·OG;erations 

Cc: John W. Grillo, President