Nevsky

A provocative article from Vanity Fair:

The Disturbing Truth About How Airplanes Are Maintained Today

TheTakeOffRush

+1
Nice find/post, Nevsky.

gfunkdave

This article sounds like 90% fearmongering about "scary foreign people taking our jobs". It says that most mechanics overseas are not FAA-certified, but then says that even US mechanics aren't all FAA-certified. And then it says that some foreign maintenance facilities ARE FAA-certified, but doesn't say whether those are the facilities servicing US carriers' aircraft. And it never says what the FAA requires in terms of having aircraft serviced by certified people or facilities, and whether the facilities or people used by US airlines are certified.

It even seems to use in its "argument" the fact that a China Airlines aircraft was improperly maintained in Taiwan as some sort of rationale for being scared of non-US maintenance facilities, but never says anything about US airlines' aircraft being maintained in Taiwan.

I personally trust the maintenance in Latin America a lot more than I do in mainland China, but that's more because of the reputation for shoddy and counterfeit Chinese products (e.g., milk powder) than anything else.

In any case, my response to this article is a big YAWN. How many crashes have there been of US airliners in the last ten years, since they've started outsourcing maintenance? The article seems more like a screed against outsourcing and a South Park-style "they took our JOBS!" than anything else.

edit: The article also doesn't mention how often mild or severe maintenance errors happen with the supposedly vaunted US, Amurrican maintenance facilities, so there's nothing to compare the outsourced, overseas ones with.

tmiw

Out of curiosity, how frequently do foreign carriers outsource their MX compared to US carriers?

Mwenenzi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Technik
http://www.lufthansa-technik.com/
http://www.ltp.com.ph/default.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...ring_companies

Would that be a foreign made car?

Worcester

Lets all hope that Lufthansa Technik are more ethical that than their Brethren engineers over at VW.

Worcester

Lets all hope that Lufthansa Technik are more ethical that than their Brethren engineers over at VW.

dvs7310

I love how in one of their fear mongering techniques they point out how some mechanics can't speak or read English .... got a good laugh out of that one, didn't realize English was a requirement to perform maintenance on machines?

Overall this article was nothing more than a steaming pile of crap playing on the insecurities of average Americans. I hope people can see through all the BS spewed here, but sadly I know most won't.

rubesl

Delta has a massive and impressive maintenance operation at ATL, their Technical Operations Center - I've been through it - they do maintenance for a lot of other airlines and the government at the facility.

LondonElite

A few paragraphs further down in the article it does say that 'the FAA requires mechanics to speak, read, write, and comprehend English because the technical manuals are written in English'. I do agree that the article is far too scaremongering than it should be.

airmotive

So much rubbish I don't know where to start...
The fact is, Part 121 maintenance is a belt-and-suspenders affair. Mistakes are made. The system is designed to catch those mistakes. Mistakes are made with the same frequency at both US facilities and around the world.
US airlines have been sending their planes overseas for heavy maintenance for many years. I cannot think of a single US accident that could be attributed to routine maintenance overseas. Conversely, I can rattle off a slew of US accidents caused by domestic maintenance....Alaska 261, American 191 and US Air 5481 come to mind.

KoKoBuddy

Did you also read the part where it says maintenance manuals are in English? It's cool though, those manuals probably aren't all that important, and it doesn't matter if the mechanics read them or not. They can wing it.

above.the.clouds

As long as the standards are maintained, I'm fine with it. I'm sure the FAA and other federal authorities watch them like a hawk.

KoKoBuddy

Did you actually read the article?

"In 2009, a US Airways Boeing 737 jet carrying passengers from Omaha to Phoenix had to make an emergency landing in Denver when a high-pitched whistling sound in the cabin signaled that the seal around the main cabin door had begun to fail. It was later discovered that mechanics at Aeroman’s El Salvador facility had installed a key component of the door backward. In another incident, Aeroman mechanics crossed wires that connect the cockpit gauges and the airplane’s engines, a potentially catastrophic error that, in the words of a 2012 Congressional Research Service report, “could cause a pilot to shut down the wrong engine if engine trouble was suspected.”

MaxBuck

I have to say that I didn't find "The Disturbing Truth" very disturbing.