United gets more time for maintenance By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY As United Airlines closes two airplane maintenance centers to save money, it is getting an extra year to do required major maintenance on at least a fifth of its jets. United, which is in bankruptcy reorganization, says the Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to let the airline do "heavy maintenance" checks on its 97 Boeing 757s once every six years instead of five. United, the FAA and some aviation experts say that such extensions are common and won't affect safety. United says its 757 policy matches industry guidelines. Boeing says those call for the heaviest maintenance checks after 12,000 flights or six years, whichever comes first. Other experts say the move will make the jets less safe. Heavy maintenance involves major overhauls. Seats and hundreds of interior panels are removed, and a jet's structure is inspected for corrosion and fatigue. Some components are replaced. United says less-intensive procedures called "C checks" were also changed this month for the 757s, from every 500 days to 540 days. The airline says it has in the past extended maintenance intervals for other types of jets. United recently closed its Indianapolis maintenance base and will close its Oakland facility by May 31. It plans to outsource much of its maintenance work to private contractors. The FAA refuses to provide any details about United's heavy maintenance extension or those of other airlines. Such extensions must meet "strict, established FAA procedures," the agency says. "Safety is the No. 1 factor" in considering extension requests, FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto says. "If there is any reason to suspect that safety might be compromised, the extension is not granted." A maintenance extension was cited as a contributor in an Alaska Airlines crash in 2000, which killed 88 people. The National Transportation Safety Board said the accident was probably caused by the airline's failure to properly check and lubricate a part in the jet's tail. The FAA had approved Alaska's request to check that mechanism less frequently. United officials say they constantly monitor their planes' maintenance and performance. Cost cutting was not a factor in extending the time limit, spokesman Chris Brathwaite says. Hank Krakowski, a United vice president, says it's "a good business practice" to not waste company money by performing maintenance tasks too soon. Some experts believe cost is an overriding concern. "Whenever you extend an interval, that can't be a good thing," says Mike Overly of the Aviation Safety Institute, a non-profit research center. "It sounds like a bottom-line move to stay afloat." Mike Metcalf, president of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading, says airlines seek extensions "clearly for cost reasons." Metcalf, whose group's members work for airlines, manufacturers and aircraft lessors, says that "planes have a tremendous amount of safety built in" and that a one-year heavy maintenance extension "does not have a huge safety implication." But doing maintenance "sooner is better than later." The average age of United's 757s is 11 years. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************