Lockheed Fined $3 million

Lockheed Penalized $3 Million Under U.S. Pilot-Service Contract
c.2007 Bloomberg News
By John Hughes

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. had $3 million withheld
last quarter
for poor performance under a U.S. contract to provide preflight
briefings to
small-plane pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

"There's evidence of dropped calls and pilots not getting
information," FAA
Administrator Marion Blakey said today in an interview in Vancouver,
where she was
attending a conference. "There are penalties in the contract and we'll
apply them."

Lockheed, one of the FAA's largest contractors, in 2005 took
responsibility from
the agency for providing the briefings at 58 stations under a $1.7
billion award.
Pilots this year have complained about being stuck on hold awaiting
briefings.

The $3 million penalty for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed was for
the first
quarter, FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said. He said he didn't know
whether any
penalties are possible this quarter, when many of the pilot complaints
have occurred.

Lockheed, which is consolidating the number of regional briefing
stations to about
20, has taken steps to fix "intermittent service issues," spokesman
Keith Mordoff
said. "We're continuing to improve," he said in an e-mail.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
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