Ive been waiting for these stories to show up. With all the price pressures and bankruptcies in the airline business, how much maintenance can they afford? How much risk can they afford? Were we being too careful before or will plane start to crash? Scary stuff.
New Concerns on Plane Maintenance
Government Report Says Significant Work Is Done By Noncertified Shops
December 27, 2005
Would you want a maintenance shop that isn't certified by the Federal Aviation Administration replacing an engine on the plane flying your next airline trip? How about working on the flight controls or replacing aircraft doors?
The Department of Transportation's inspector general released a report last week documenting serious maintenance work done on U.S. airlines by maintenance companies that weren't FAA certified. The report also found that non-certified repair facilities are widely used. The practice is allowed: Airlines can outsource maintenance to noncertified contractors as long as the individual mechanics who do the work are FAA licensed themselves. The FAA said that most of the work is minor, like oil changes, and major work is only done in emergency situations.
But by looking at shops that do work for six airlines, the inspector general's investigation found otherwise, including the three examples above. Non-certified companies did major scheduled maintenance work, the inspector general said. The audit found six domestic and foreign facilities doing scheduled maintenance and 21 that performed maintenance "critical to the airworthiness of the aircraft."
"Non-certified repair facilities are now performing more significant work than anyone realized," the report said.
To cut costs, U.S. airlines have outsourced more and more of the $4.9 billion they spend annually on maintenance work, and there's been concern that the FAA and its inspectors aren't keeping up. The DOT says more than 50% of the maintenance work at U.S. airlines is now outsourced.
