Rowlett Company Ordered to Stop Making Aircraft Navigation Units

FAA says company poses "unacceptable risk" to aviation safety

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday issued an emergency order barring a Rowlett company from making navigation units for small planes because of an “ongoing and unacceptable risk to aviation safety.”

The order was issued after the company, NavWorx, repeatedly declined to allow inspectors access to its plant in Rowlett, the FAA said.

The navigation units tell pilots and air traffic controllers the exact location of the aircraft. But NavWorx’s units may not be accurate, the FAA said.

The agency said it is concerned that two versions of the navigation units, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, use internal chips that do not meet government standards.

“Navworx poses an ongoing and unacceptable risk to aviation safety,” the FAA said in a letter to the company.

William A. Moffitt, Navworx’s president, said in an emailed statement that the company's navigation units are safe and accused the FAA of changing its ground stations in January so that they do not communicate with Navworx units, putting pilots in danger.

"The actions of the FAA should be investigated and we would welcome the opportunity to testify to Congress," the statement said.

The Navworx statement did not address the FAA's claim that its inspectors were denied access.

In its letter, the FAA said the company’s navigation units incorrectly broadcast to air traffic controllers that they use a GPS unit of the “highest integrity.”

“As a result, the operation of these units could result in an unsafe condition … due to the transmission of potentially inaccurate aircraft position data,” the FAA wrote.

The FAA said it had tried to inspect the company since June 29 but was denied access several times.

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