American Airlines Grounding
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
April 10, 2008 2:11pm CST
The past few days American Airlines has canceled almost all flights due to the inspection failures of the airlines. Southwest was fined $10 million for failure to do proper inspections. Other airlines noted this and started to do the inspections. The FAA is the federal agency that oversees the Airlines. In the Wall Street Journal there is an article on this issue and points out that the Airlines teach the FAA what maintaince and inspections need to be done. Check out this article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120778513946003305.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd
When I started flying I was told that the safest Airlines to fly is the one with the last crash. Airlines are all about the customer safety. Airline crashes are bad for businss that is why most airplanes have a double or triple system back up.
This latest problem is one of how wiring bundles should be secured to the body of the plane. If this is like other government regulations the decision is reached by a person who may or may not know about air planes. An example of this thinking is in the housing industry. Someone did a study and found that new homes with R-11 insluation factor in the basement are warmer than houses with out this factor. If you buy a house and use a federal loan program you have to meet certain standards including having you basement at an R-11 factor. It will cost you $5,000 to upgrade and you may save $10 TO $15 per year in heating and cooling costs. It is not cost effective to retrofit the house.
In the case of the wiring on the planes it may be something like it needs to be tied or connected to the body every 12 inches and the plane comes that way from the manufracture. Now somebody new comes in and decides that it would be best if the wires were secured every 10 inches. Airlines will change this over time but to ground a fleet for a technical violation. It is not a matter of safety but a matter of power for the FAA and its inspectors. More inspections needed the more inspectors needed or more overtime for the inspectors.
I would like to see the FAA show how this is a safety issue and how we are in danger.
1 response
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
10 Apr 08
Boy, does this thing with the airplanes remind me of the truck inspections when I was an independent trucker. I once saw on a news program where a DOT inspection found 80% of trucks inspected were in violation. Sounds horrible. Here's what they didn't tell people.
1) They were not randomly inspecting trucks. As trucks went through a weigh station inspectors pulled over trucks with possible violations visible to the naked eye while the truck was on the scale. Inspectors don't like to waste time on trucks that are OK.
2) Most of the violations were not serious.
So, instead of implying 80% of the trucks on the road have DOT violations the news could have reported 20% of trucks with apparent violations are OK. It would have been the same thing.
Anyway, from what you are saying the deal with the airplanes is similar to what they use to do with the trucks.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
11 Apr 08
The Government inspectors must justify their job. When I was a school Administrator and we had an audit they always found things wrong. Once I was audited by the state Fire Marshal to check on the number of Fire Drills we had each year. We had one each month like the law required and he told me that I had to have at lease one during inclement weather or I was not in compliance. I told him that I needed it writing from him to the School Board. I never got the letter. So much for the power of the inspectors.
From what I read the FAA wanted the wires bundled one way and the Airlines did it another way. Big Brother won and the consumer lost.
