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FAA let American Airlines fly planes that shouldn't have been considered airworthy after maintenance oversight lapses
The Federal Aviation Administration "lacks effective oversight" of American Airlines' maintenance safety programs, the US Department of Transportation reported on Friday, and as a result the airline flew aircraft that should not have been considered airworthy. (www.businessinsider.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I was working the AA DC-10-30's at HNL as a ground support agent in the '80's, one day a flight came in and I noticed the center main gear was not extended, I checked the log book and found out it was deactivated the week before because of a fluid leak, but yet it was still being fully loaded as a 30 series when it should have fallen under the 10 series guidelines.
Not enough information to really assess the gravity of the engine strut problem. Could have been very minor and very low risk (e.g. incorrect size of safety wire) or egregious and a completely unacceptable risk (e.g. failed inspection and returned to service anyway). BTW, the engine mounts on 191 were damaged due to an improper airline-developed engine replacement procedure that overloaded them. The rest was tragic history.
So they require my flight's crew to shutter one of the bathrooms on a long haul flight because THE ASHTRAY is broken but they ignore incorrectly installed struts... that sounds about right.
After the last seven months nothing surprises me anymore.
So a larger centralized federal government is better, right? As it turns out a massive centralized federal government not only restricts American's freedoms it allows real safety hazards; (i.e., "effective oversight"?).
A couple of years ago, as a general member of the flying public, I submitted a complaint to the FAA re: AA maintenance. Despite the @faa.gov e-mail of the person who responded to me, I got the distinct feeling I was corresponding with an AA employee. If not that, then an FAA employee cutting & pasting input from AA. The final resolution was unsatisfying. It simply stated the end repair was done correctly - I do not doubt that otherwise the pilots would not have flown - but completely sidestepped my complaint for a root cause analysis of why a defective aircraft was delivered to the gate straight from the hangar.
I get that the FAA has finite resources and relies on cooperation of industry to get its oversight accomplished. However, it is a very fine line to walk between that and regulatory capture by industry. I am of the opinion that line was crossed a while back. The danger in this scenario is that poor practices, whether intentional or not, get baked into a an organization's operations. Getting back to a proper state of affairs is a lot of work.