The Disturbing Truth About How Airplanes Are Maintained Today.

[lockedout]

Not long ago I was waiting for a domestic flight in a departure lounge at one of the crumbling midcentury sheds that pass for an American airport these days. There were delays, as we’ve all come to expect, and then the delays turned into something more ominous. The airplane I was waiting for had a serious maintenance issue, beyond the ability of a man in an orange vest to address. The entire airplane would have to be taken away for servicing and another brought to the gate in its place. This would take a while. Those of us in the departure lounge settled in for what we suspected might be hours. From the window I watched the ground crew unload the bags from the original airplane. When the new one arrived, the crew pumped the fuel, loaded the bags, and stocked the galley. It was a scene I’d witnessed countless times. Soon we would board and be on the way to our destinations.

As for the first airplane, the one with the maintenance problem—what was its destination going to be? When you have time on your hands, you begin to wonder about things like this. My own assumption, as yours might have been, was that the aircraft would be towed to a nearby hangar for a stopgap repair and then flown to a central maintenance facility run by the airline somewhere in the U.S. Or maybe there was one right here at the airport. In any case, if it needed a major overhaul, presumably it would be performed by the airline’s staff of trained professionals. If Apple feels it needs a “Genius Bar” at its stores to deal with hardware and software that cost a few hundred dollars, an airline must have something equivalent to safeguard an airplane worth a few hundred million.

About this I would be wrong—as wrong as it is possible to be. Over the past decade, nearly all large U.S. airlines have shifted heavy maintenance work on their airplanes to repair shops thousands of miles away, in developing countries, where the mechanics who take the planes apart (completely) and put them back together (or almost) may not even be able to read or speak English. US Airways and Southwest fly planes to a maintenance facility in El Salvador. Delta sends planes to Mexico. United uses a shop in China. American still does much of its most intensive maintenance in-house in the U.S., but that is likely to change in the aftermath of the company’s merger with US Airways.

The airlines are shipping this maintenance work offshore for the reason you’d expect: to cut labor costs. Mechanics in El Salvador, Mexico, China, and elsewhere earn a fraction of what mechanics in the U.S. do. In part because of this offshoring, the number of maintenance jobs at U.S. carriers has plummeted, from 72,000 in the year 2000 to fewer than 50,000 today. But the issue isn’t just jobs. A century ago, Upton Sinclair wrote his novel The Jungle to call attention to the plight of workers in the slaughterhouses, but what really got people upset was learning how unsafe their meat was. Safety is an issue here, too. The Federal Aviation Administration is supposed to be inspecting all the overseas facilities that do maintenance for airlines—just as it is supposed to inspect those in America. But the F.A.A. no longer has the money or the manpower to do this.

One of the fastest-growing of the offshore repair sites is on the perimeter of El Salvador’s Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport. Named for the archbishop who was assassinated during Mass in 1980, the airport has become a busy hub, owing largely to a steady influx of foreign jetliners needing maintenance and repair. Jets flying the insignia of US Airways, Southwest, Jet Blue, and many smaller American carriers are a common sight as they touch down and taxi to the Aeroman complex at the edge of the field.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/...sturbing-truth

[Radaney]

Wow...so disturbing. Kappa.

[Garnier Fructis]

Well, the upshot is that we only need ~2 plane crashes from faulty overseas maintenance for the FAA to bring down the hammer.

You need around two, because in the past the FAA has sometimes looked the other way or made informal agreements with airlines to not fix a problem the first time around. The second crash reveals this, and the resulting fallout forces the FAA to act.

Or you can just not fly on shitty domestic flights.

Edit: And this kind of crash would create a huge uproar, if only because the politics involved (outsourcing of jobs) is already a hot issue.

[Deleted]

sending stuff abroad to be built or repaired is nothing new its so businesses can save money this has been happening for decades

[Caolela]

The OP is not talking about mere generic "stuff". These are airplanes with hundreds of lives at stake on each flight, not to mention the danger of a plane crashing into something on the ground, killing more.

Businesses aren't "saving money", their CEOs and share-holders are pocketing the cost cuts and getting richer, while their employees are getting screwed out of jobs or decent pay and bennies.

[Kapadons]

I like how you make the assumption that the repair shops in El Salvador,China and Mexico are all dogshit because "may not be able to read or speak English." Why do you think these repair shops are better or worse than American ones.

Also, any plane going to China for repair will have to be flown there and flown back before it can be used for domestic flights. seems the plane must be working before being used.

[s_bushido]

So what you're saying is: speaking English is a requirement of being a mechanic? Guess people in all those non-English speaking countries are pretty screwed.

[monkmastaeq]

I did some work recently in our local airport (small town 60k ppl, so small airport) They had a mechanic on duty during open times, he was only making 15$ an hour. We can't even get people to make burgers right for 15$ an hour and thats what we pay to maintain our aircraft.

[s_bushido]

I did some work recently in our local airport (small town 60k ppl, so small airport) They had a mechanic on duty during open times, he was only making 15$ an hour. We can't even get people to make burgers right for 15$ an hour and thats what we pay to maintain our aircraft.

Was he paid to maintain the aircraft, or just get gas and replace batteries in the various ground vehicles they use at the airport?

[monkmastaeq]

Was he paid to maintain the aircraft, or just get gas and replace batteries in the various ground vehicles they use at the airport?

He did actual work on the aircraft, went to school for it for 4 years i believe. You'd be surprised what entry level pilots make as well

[alturic]

1.) If an aircraft needs that kind of repairs, why the hell are we flying them long distances to get repaired even?

2.) How long has this been happening -vs- how many aircraft has crashed because of bad repairs from said facilities?

3.) I don't know how much fuel is costs to fly overseas, or to Mexico but apparently fuel is pretty cheap if it's cheaper to pay for the fuel to get there, and back just to save on the labor.

- - - Updated - - -

He did actual work on the aircraft, went to school for it for 4 years i believe. You'd be surprised what entry level pilots make as well

And fast food workers think they should be making anywhere near $15/hour, hahahahahaha.

[Spiral Mage]

+1 for writing skills.
Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic. Phrasing and word usage in your post was really good!

But it's also incredibly sad that this is what they do.

[SirBeef]

This is nothing new. A friends father worked as a mechanic for Delta back in the 90s when I knew him. They went on strike becasue Delta wanted to reduce the amount of hours planes were maintained so they could be in use more.

[soulzek]

The whole OP adheres to the assumption that "off-shore" and "non-american" engineers produce shoddy, unreliable work.

What facts do you have to support this? Oh wait, this is MMOC off topic... nevermind.

[Deleted]

Well that was anticlimactic. I expected some juicy revelation about how airplanes are made from the blood of the innocent or something.

No but seriously I don't understand how you come to the assumption that just because they're non-english speaking that somehow cripples or lessens their ability to repair aircrafts?

[SirBeef]

Was he paid to maintain the aircraft, or just get gas and replace batteries in the various ground vehicles they use at the airport?

Are you sure he was licensed to be an aircraft mechanic? The can easily pull down $20-$30/hour. I have some relatives in school for that right now and they are looking at jobs this summer in Alaska and Arizona for around $25/hour.

[twelvethirty]

Im at least glad to see that the author acknowledges being a mechanic is skilled labor, however im not terribly concerned about some dudes from ecuador doing what is essentially preventative maintenance work. You dont need to know english to read a print and turn a wrench, that is just an FAA regulation. The FAA is an american agency, it doesnt control the entire worlds safety standards. If these methods were unsafe, aircraft would be falling out of the sky regularly. You probably have a higher chance of a hijacking or pilot error than having an engine fail or something else.

[Bigbamboozal]

1: off shore does not = poor work. Like are you kidding me? You think yanky doodle is the only game in town for skilled workers? You don't get out much do you?
2: non-english speaking does not = retarded. Especially when the required language is engineering. Well, at least you didn't stoop to levels of 'they dun speak american'
3: this is what you get for free trade bro, welcome to the shit side of the master plan.

[Pwellzor]

And fast food workers think they should be making anywhere near $15/hour, hahahahahaha.

Wages are low across the board. Everyone should be making more based on the growth of our economy over the last 2 decades.

[Powerogue]

It really shows the massive discrepancy in labor costs when they can move an entire plane out of the country rather than fix it here. That can't be cheap.