Of course we want pictures! -----Original Message----- From: AMT@Delta Air Lines [mailto:Delta.AMT@verizon.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 10:10 PM To: The Airline List; Douglas Schnell Subject: Re: What is Charles going to say to this? If you want pictures of this door, just let me know. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Schnell" <dks28@cornell.edu> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 4:17 PM Subject: What is Charles going to say to this? > From Forbes ... http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/0401/052.html > > > Are Airplanes Safe Enough? > Mark Tatge, 04.01.02 > > > Mechanics are squawking that airlines are skimping on maintenance. > Crash statistics don't bear out their complaints-yet. Gassed up and > loaded with passengers, United flight 9921 was preparing to leave > Dulles International for Boston on Sept. 4, 2001. But for some reason > the front passenger door on the Boeing 737 wouldn't close. Called to > the tarmac, the mechanic removed the inner door panel and found the > answer: The door was falling off. "I saw all these faces looking out > the little windows, and I thought, 'What if this thing had opened in > flight?'" he recalls. One of UAL's maintenance subcontractors had > forgotten to connect all the bolts when the jet was overhauled the > week before. "It was something that slipped through that shouldn't > have," says David Latimer, vice president at Triad International > Maintenance Corp. Timco employees involved were disciplined, and > controls were tightened. > > > > Both Timco and United (nyse: UAL - news - people), Latimer says, told > the Federal Aviation Administration, charged with regulating airline > safety, about the problem-no fines resulted. But the FAA did levy > fines in other episodes of maintenance and safety oversight. A United > 737 flew 17 flights from Mar. 25 to Apr. 3, 2001 with parts of its > fuel system missing or improperly installed. The FAA fined UAL > $200,000 for operating the jet in an "unairworthy condition." In > another instance, in 1999, American Airlines (nyse: AMR - news - > people) completed 198 flights with inoperable backup batteries to > power the emergency aircraft lighting that guides passengers to the > exits in a crash. That, coupled with broken chargers and defective > battery cables uncovered in a 1999 FAA inspection of American > facilities, resulted in penalties of $1 million. The FAA hit US > Airways (nyse: U - news - people) last June with a $245,000 fine for > flying an Airbus A330 hundreds of extra flights without inspecting the > engines for defects (the law requires they be checked every 2,000 > flight hours). Alaska Airlines (nyse: ALK - news - > people) incurred a $211,000 penalty in March 2001 for flying an MD-80 in > what the FAA called "an unairworthy condition" after it sustained damage > to a strip on a landing-gear door. The jet made 47 flights before being > repaired. > > Are airlines getting sloppy with their maintenance? The mechanics say > yes; the airlines say no. Such is the rarity of crashes that it's hard > to pick up a trend in only a few years of data. For now, at least, the > data suggest that air safety is improving. Excluding incidents of > suicide and sabotage, U.S. carriers had 11 fatal accidents, killing > 439, in the five years from 1983 to 1987, versus 14 fatal crashes from > 1997 to 2001, which killed 634. This increase occurred as the number > of departures more than doubled between the earlier and the later > periods. Serious accidents, including fatalities-caused by weather, > pilot error and maintenance slipups-have doubled over time: 102 > crashes from 1983 to 1987, versus 211 from 1997 to 2001. > > The last crash blamed on bad maintenance was the Jan. 31, 2000 Alaska > Airlines flight 261, which plunged into the Pacific, killing 88 > people. Investigators are focused on a jackscrew that controlled the > horizontal stabilizer. Reacting to the tragedy, the FAA conducted a > review of maintenance at nine carriers. Released in late February, its > report was delayed nearly a year, in part so the airlines could > comment on it. Singled out for maintenance lapses were America West > Airlines (nyse: AWA > - news - people)and American Airlines, while United and Northwest > Airlines were commended for their internal audits. > > Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of > Transportation, doesn't take comfort in the FAA report. "Airlines are > allowed an awful lot of leeway in what they can get away with," she > says. "The FAA pretty much leaves it up to the carrier to decide what > needs to be fixed." When the agency does levy a fine, the airline can > appeal-often resulting in a reduced penalty or one that disappears. > America West halved a $5 million levy for what the FAAcalled "serious" > maintenance problems in 1998. > > > > Even without an FAA, carriers would invest in safety. They have > reputations to protect and liability insurance to buy. But since they > lost $6 billion last year, they are desperately looking to cut costs. > Airlines spend on average 12.3% of operating expenses to keep planes > flying, the third-highest noncapital cost after labor and fuel. > > Nowhere is the heat more intense than at the number two carrier, UAL. > Dogged by fractious labor relations and poor on-time performance, it > is struggling to get its planes turned around quickly and employment > down. In the last year it has shed 20% of its mechanics, to 12,587-but > has cut departures by 25%, to 1,800 a day. > > What do United mechanics say? FORBES spoke with more than a dozen in > Denver, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C., who > complain they face disciplinary action for writing up maintenance > problems when doing so would interfere with UAL's on-time performance. > As one United supervisor in Portland, Ore. told his mechanics, "I want > you to be blind and on quaaludes when you go into that cockpit." UAL > says the complaints are from "disgruntled mechanics" trying to win > concessions in the recently settled five-year contract. They received > a 37% raise, the first pay increase since taking salary cuts in > exchange for stock since 1994. > > A pay raise isn't much solace for Denver mechanic George T. Davis. > United fired him after he wrote up two aircraft for mechanical > problems in 2000. In a whistle-blower complaint he filed with the U.S. > Department of Labor, Davis told the captain of a flight headed for > Ontario that his plane had a hydraulic leak that could have busted the > line, impairing the pilot's ability to control the jet. Davis' > supervisor disagreed and tried to clear the plane for takeoff. The > captain intervened, refusing to fly until the leak was fixed. Davis' > complaint says he also wrote up a tire on an Airbus A320 after finding > a 1-to-2-inch gash in it. His manager insisted the tire was fit for > takeoff; the pilot demanded the tire be changed. (Davis has since been > reinstated but is fighting for lost wages.) > > According to testimony before the General Accounting Office by members > of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association-which represents > mechanics at Northwest, among others-"managers' income at many > airlines is now directly tied to the level of maintenance delays." The > GAO is investigating the effect of a decline in the number of > mechanics' jobs. > > It's impossible to say how widespread supervisory lapses may be. > Internal maintenance records suggest that managers at United's O'Hare > hub have signed off on planes as airworthy, when they were not. In one > case a Boeing 727 had problems with its aileron, the small hinged > sections on the outside of the wing that permit a jet to bank on a > turn. Records show the 727 left Chicago on July 16, 2001 for > Charlotte, N.C.-despite a report by the flight crew claiming the right > aileron jerked to the right while airborne. The maintenance supervisor > signed off on the plane before it left, saying he had been "unable to > duplicate" the problem on the ground; he suspected moisture had caused > the aileron to stick. He had mechanics lube the assembly and sent the > jet on its way. But en route to Charlotte, the 727 crew had the same > trouble. Once on the ground they refused to fly the plane until it was > fixed and taken on a test flight. Mechanics tore apart the wing and > found cables were jamming in the pulleys that operate the aileron. > > A 727-200 flew for a month-May 24 to June 20, 2001-before repairs were > made to its horizontal stabilizer. Located on the tail of the > aircraft, the stabilizer allows a pilot to control the tendency of the > plane to pitch up or down. The motors that activate the stabilizer > weren't working, and the pilot had to use a hand crank. Mechanics > wrote up the defect on four occasions; within a few days, according to > one mechanic, the plane was finally repaired. (United denies these > episodes occurred.) > > > "Do we make errors? You bet," says Ronald Utecht, United's senior vice > president of engineering and maintenance. But, he says, United does > not put unsafe airplanes in the air. "We do everything we can to fix a > plane-99% of the writeups get fixed the first time." > > United is by no means the only carrier with maintenance problems. > Testimony before the GAO claims that mechanics at all major airlines > are frequently threatened by supervisors that "the discovery of 'too > many' maintenance discrepancies" will result in more work shifting to > subcontractors-even though managers "generally concede that these > subcontractors are notorious for their inferior workmanship and use of > unlicensed staff." The testimony cites the arbitration case of a > Northwest Airlines mechanic fired for excessive writeups; it goes on > to say that Northwest's own managers confirmed that planes were > allowed to fly "in an unairworthy condition" while carrying > passengers. > > Additional reporting by Megan Johnston >