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Is Outsourcing Of Airline Maintenance Safe?
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Oursourcing of airline maintenance continues to grow. According to a three-part story now being aired on NLP by Daniel Zwerdling, outsourcing of maintenance has increased from thirty-four percent in 2003 to seventy-one percent in 2007.
The planes you and your family fly on are overhauled by unlicensed mechanics and without FAA supervision in Argentina, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, China and Indonesia. Aviation safety expert John Goglia, who served on the National Transportation Safety Board says, "We don't know what's going on in those facilities. If we're not monitoring them properly, how do we know it's safe."
The Business Travel Coalition has pointed out that airline-owned maintenance bases are held to the most stringent standards, mechanics and inspectors employeed by U.S. airlines must be licensed by the FAA. But, neither mechanics nor supervisors at foreign repair states are required to have a FAA license.
While failing to supervise work done by unlicensed mechanics at overseas repair stations, the FAA has reacted to criticism by levying large fines on maintenance done in the U.S. where they do supervise. For example, the FAA called for certain wires in the nose wheel area of the MD-80 covered with a protective sheath. American Airlines promptly did the work on their MD-80 fleet. After the work was done, the FAA added language saying the loops around the sheath should be spaced one inch apart. When the FAA later found some loops to be slightly over one inch apart, they levied a huge fine against American Airlines. In terms of safety, it made no difference whether the loops were one inch apart or an inch-and-a-half apart. In some cases, a different spacing was used for good reason, as shown in this photo where a loop is widened to be placed as near as possible to a wiring support.
American Airlines was forced to ground planes, cancel flights and rewrap the sheath though the planes had flown for years with no sheath at all. Safety is compromised when the FAA irresponsibly levies fines on work done in the U.S. by licensed airline mechanics. Doing so gives airlines additional reason to move maintenance offshore where the work is without FAA supervision.
But even if the FAA were monitoring these facilities, the most important safety motivator, self-preservation, is lost when maintenance is outsourced. Since 1980, I've worked both as an airline pilot and as a licensed therapist with anxious and fearful fliers. When I have taken a client down to the ramp to talk with a mechanic, one question has always been asked, "How do I know you do the job right?"
You might expect the answer to be risk of being fired or losing a mechanics license. No mechanic has ever said that to one of my fear of flying clients. What mechanics have said in every case is, "Because when my family travels on a pass, it is going to be on a plane I have worked on."
Though FAA supervision is important, nothing matches self-preservation and family-preservation as a motivating factor. Mechanics employed by an airline get passes for themselves and their families on the airline. When an airline outsources maintenance, that doesn't happen. Mechanics at these overseas repair stations have no skin in the game.
