Posted on 04/16/2024 9:46:44 AM PDT by rdl6989
American Airlines’ pilots union has reported a “significant spike” in safety issues, raising red flags over fewer routine aircraft inspections and shorter test flights on planes following major maintenance work.
The Allied Pilots Association cited a slew of “problematic trends” in an email to members Saturday, noting a “significant spike in safety- and maintenance-related problems.”
It highlighted incidents in which tools were left in wheel wells and items were left in the sterile area around planes parked at airport gates.
The airline has increased the time between routine inspections and ended overnight maintenance checks unless a plane is written up for special attention, the union noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Lot of transportation issues in this country these last few years. But who expected anything more from Mayor Pete?
Good point.
DEI (didn’t earn it) coming back to haunt everyone at every level and phase of any activity
Just to be clear, American Airlines is the largest Airbus A320 operator in the world, so don’t blame Boeing.
Butt, who expected anything more from Mayor Pete?
How many of the mechanics, and how many of their managers, Didn’t Earn It?
To be even clearer, maintenance is the operator’s responsibility, not the manufacturers. Once the bird leaves Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer, whatever, the customer takes on the job of keeping it airworthy.
DEI (didn’t earn it) coming back to haunt everyone at every level and phase of any activity!
How many people did they fire for refusing the vaxx? How many people retired because of vaxx damage?
I'll hazard a guess that most airline maintenance departments are understaffed because they most likely haven't been replacing retirees. So instead of hiring or paying overtime (those both cost money), they simply stretch maintenance intervals, spend less time doing inspections, ignore minor deficiencies, put band-aids on major issues instead of addressing the problem correctly, etc.
I've been in industrial maintenance pretty much my entire working life, and as you meet people from other industries, you learn that it's the same everywhere. Food production, refineries, chemical plants, manufacturing, transportation, so on and so forth.
They expect people to keep things running by doing less than the bare minimum.
How many industrial and transportation mishaps have we seen the last few years now? Everyone is trying to do way more with way less, which only works until it doesnt.
The thing is never the thing. The thing is always the revolution.
The FAA is probably DEI also.
Diversity
Even worse: they probably made it a profit center at least on paper.
The other parts of the organization were expected to pay for the maintenance, leading to managers paying less in order to make their own organizations more profitable in order to get bonuses, raises, and promotions.
p
If it’s so bad why haven’t they moved on to another company can’t be to unsafe.
🤣😅
That's not entirely true.
"Responsibility for Airworthiness. Title 14 CFR part 91 states that the owner/operator of a civil aircraft is primarily responsible for maintaining that aircraft in an airworthy condition" [emphasis added]
You'll notice, it doesn't say things like exclusively responsible, or only responsible. The carriers are primarily responsible...but they are not the only ones responsible.
What "inspection program" are the carriers using?
Their own (the carriers)? Meaning, the aircraft in question is no longer "supported" by the manufacturer? Examples - ex-military aircraft, low-usage aircraft, or special operations aircraft, such as Forest Service smokejumpers or firefighting.
Or, is the aircraft still being supported by the manufacturer and therefore the carrier is using the manufacturer's "inspection program?" Is that manufacturer's inspection program lacking in any way? Has the manufacturer lessened or decreased any part of their inspection program?
What about parts? If an aircraft needs to have parts replaced...who manufactured those parts? The carriers? Unlikely. The aircraft manufacturer? Are they OEM? Are those replacement parts made to the same standard as originally designed? Even if a carrier properly installs the new part(s), per manufacturer specs, if the new parts are sub-standard, the likelihood of failure increases.
Was an inspection carried out by the manufacture itself (or one of it's subsidiaries)? Did the manufacturer rebuild any part that was subsequently re-installed? 14 CFR § 43.3 - Persons authorized to perform maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and alterations.
It's far more complex than simply...Boeing made a plane and once the carrier purchases it, Boeing has zero responsibility for the continued airworthiness of the plane.
There's a common theme amongst what seems like a significant increase in "issues" with aircraft these days...and that common theme just so happens to be Boeing.
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