Teamsters Alarmed by Reports of UAL 747s Grounded Due to Foreign Repair Station Error

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-20-2008/0004778066&EDATE=

Teamsters Union Says Incident Shows Need for Moratorium on Offshoring
Repairs


WASHINGTON, March 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General
President Jim Hoffa said he is disturbed by reports that six United
Airlines Boeing 747s were grounded on Thursday because of errors by a
foreign repair station.

The jumbo jets were grounded after it was discovered that improper
pitot static testers - equipment used to test gauges that provide air data,
such as the altimeter - were used by the facility to which United (Nasdaq:
UAUA) outsources its heavy maintenance in Busan, S. Korea.

"This just shows how risky it is to send airplanes offshore to be
repaired," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "Overseas repair
stations simply don't meet the same standards as U.S. repair stations. The
FAA should no longer allow U.S. airlines to send their repairs overseas."

Supervisors and inspectors who sign off on maintenance work at foreign
repair stations are not required to hold either a Federal Aviation
Administration repairman certificate or an Airframe and/or Powerplant
certificate, nor are the mechanics working on the aircraft at these
facilities.

According to the FAA's database, the South Korea repair station has
only one certificated mechanic out of 38 employees.

The Transportation Department's inspector general has reported that the
Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of foreign repair stations is
uneven. Only 103 FAA inspectors (including management staff) are
responsible for inspecting 692 foreign repair stations. Limited staff and
travel budgets, and passport and visa controls, make unannounced
inspections of these facilities virtually impossible.

FULL story at link.

[Stargazer99]

1. The common man is just throw-away stuff for big business

and Republican conservaties

[DainBramaged]

2. Outsourcing, the profit panacea for the Reich wing

Why does this not surprise me in the least?? And the fact you WON'T hear it on the MSM is even less of a shock.

[DainBramaged]

3. K&R