An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation exposes how a federal program set up to sanction alcohol and drug abusing pilots might be protecting them instead.

In our first story, DUI Pilots, Warning Signs Ignored, Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne revealed that the Federal Aviation Administration is monitoring about two-thousand certified pilots recently convicted of drunken driving. Hundreds more airline pilots, jet mechanics and flight crew members representing major airlines are being watched for drug problems, too.

Now, Halsne reveals why the FAA is under fire by another federal agency for failing to address some deadly failures we pointed out in its system.

The FAA's enforcement division says that risky, off-the-job behaviors like DUI’s are a good indicator of the kind of pilot that might also abuse alcohol, and then get into a cockpit. That said, our investigation found the agency routinely decides to let diagnosed alcoholics keep their flying certifications.

Flight instructor and commercial-rated pilot Catherine Anne Travis has voluntarily decided to stay grounded, even though the FAA keeps her license on "active" status.

In December 2007, state troopers found her in "extreme impairment" with an alcohol level three times the legal limit. When she recently got arrested for another DUI, a judge ordered her to drive only after first blowing into an ignition locking device.

However, we videotaped her breaking that condition of her probation by driving a vehicle not equipped with one.

We sent a camera crew to her house to ask why the FAA hadn’t ever sanctioned her for the DUI conviction, but she wouldn’t come to the door.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it tracks, and often sanctions, pilots who are convicted of drunken driving because it indicates a problematic "medical issue".

However, when Team 7 Investigators doubled checked the FAA's system, we found hundreds of pilot DUI convictions – just in Washington State- where the agency either took no action or never found out.

That kind of oversight is an ongoing pattern which is causing concern for the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB is the agency in charge of investigating fatal aviation crashes.

Just this decade, pilots who get into their planes after drinking alcohol are responsible for 53 crashes which have killed 47 people and injured 33 others.

Deputy director John DeLisi agreed to an interview at NTSB Washington DC headquarters.

“For you to get a drunken driving arrest for drunken driving, you're probably someone who drinks alcohol and takes the risk of driving a car very frequently. That's a red flag that you shouldn't be in the cockpit.”

Not only is DeLisi worried about inebriated pilots, but the NTSB has admonished the FAA twice in three years for inadequate alcohol monitoring of licensed aviators.

Fatal accidents in both Louisiana and Arizona were caused by drunken pilots, known to the FAA as having multiple DUI arrests, but allowed to keep certifications. The NTSB wrote: “A contributing factor was the FAA's failure to identify existing evidence of substance (alcohol) dependence in the pilot due to an inadequate and incomplete process of screening medical applications.”

The FAA hasn’t responded to that accusation, something that DeLisi says borders on unacceptable.

“It's been a while now, almost three years,” DeLisi told KIRO Team 7 Investigators. “We haven't seen the action that they promised to take in that review. So we are contacting the FAA, we are putting together a list of several additional accidents since then that have highlighted alcohol abuse on the part of pilots and we are continuing to site in the probable cause.”

Federal law requires pilots to self report alcohol related arrests, convictions, and changes in medical condition, like alcoholism or drug dependence. The FAA typically lets one DUI conviction slide by without sanction. However, by analyzing thousands of DUI cases nationwide, Team 7 Investigators discovered the FAA often fails to take into account that by the time a pilot gets that conviction, many have been arrested multiple times. They save themselves from reporting their alcohol abuse by taking plea deals.

Aviation Attorney Marjorie Tedrick, wishes the system didn't reward secrecy.

“I wish there could be times when the FAA would look at an amnesty program and get this out of the back closet and into the open and allow these guys to come clean because frankly a sober alcoholic is just as safe as anyone else. It's just a matter of getting them the help they need.

Jim Grant runs Northway Aviation, a Cessna flight school in Snohomish County. He's disappointed we found so many pilots skirting the most basic safety rule of the sky.

Grant told Halsne, “It's an honors system. You're supposed to self police yourself. I always thought it worked. I really did. You can't be drinking. You can't be on medication. That's why the self-reporting is supposed to work.”

The NTSB is now drafting a formal letter to the FAA, encouraging that agency to fix the holes in its pilot alcohol monitoring program before anyone else dies.

The FAA, from Seattle to Washington DC, refuses to sit down with Halsne and do an interview on this subject. In an attempt to get some kind of comment from the FAA, Team 7 Investigators sent a videographer to a press event, featuring FAA Administrator, Randy Babbitt.

Our question was this: “Twice in three years, NTSB has cited failures in your pilot alcohol monitoring program as having been a contributing factor in fatal crashes. Can you respond to the allegation your agency isn’t doing enough to keep pilots with known histories of alcohol abuse out of the sky?”

Despite repeating part of the question a second time, Babbitt didn’t appear to have any knowledge of the NTSB’s concerns. See Babbitt's Response

While Babbitt was still in Seattle, KIRO Team 7 Investigators offered his public relations people a redo, but the FAA declined our offer. A public relations official did, however, send a new statement clarifying Randy Babbitt’s earlier statement.

"Alcohol abuse by commercial pilots is rare, but the FAA does have stringent measures in place to make sure pilots with alcohol dependence don't reach the cockpit. Whenever a commercial pilot applies for a medical certificate -- every six to 12 months -- he or she signs a medical form authorizing the FAA to search the National Drivers Registry for violations involving alcohol or drug use, and the FAA does check those records. We responded positively to several alcohol-related NTSB recommendations in the last three years and detailed actions that would improve the detection of pilots with a history of abuse. The Board continues to carry our responses in "acceptable" status."