Airplane repair plan criticized A Congressional proposal to tighten security requirements for foreign=20 companies and workers who maintain planes flown by U.S. airlines is so=20 "watered-down" that it will have no impact. That's the complaint of the=20 union that represents some 12,000 mechanics at Northwest, Mesaba, Southwest= =20 and other airlines. Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a measure that would= =20 require foreign workers maintaining planes to undergo drug testing and=20 background checks. But the measure is full of loopholes, charges Frank=20 Boksanske, national safety and standards director for the Aircraft=20 Mechanics Fraternal Association. "In my opinion, it is useless," he said.=20 "It's a watered-down politicized version that won't accomplish anything."=20 The U.S. House also is considering a bill concerning the security of U.S.=20 planes maintained overseas by foreign workers. AMFA has repeatedly called for increasing security requirements for such=20 work, contending that foreign standards are lower, exposing planes to=20 possible sabotage. The less work sent overseas, the more work there could=20 be for AMFA members. Northwest says that its contract allows it to=20 outsource up to 38 percent of aircraft maintenance. Currently, it sends 25= =20 percent of work to outside vendors. Half are in the United States, half in= =20 other countries. In some cases, the security of maintenance bases overseas= =20 is tighter than it is in the United States, Northwest says. SASCO, one=20 maintenance service vendor used by Northwest in Asia, performs NWA work=20 inside a Singapore military base. NWA says that Southwest, Continental,=20 JetBlue, AirTran and Frontier outsource all =97 or nearly all =97 of their= =20 heavy aircraft maintenance. =97 Martin J. Moylan *************************************************** 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/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************