WOW!! The Insanity Of The TSA, The Airline Maintenance Industry And The War On Terror

I was just watching Frontline on PBS
During this entire oppression of rights of privacy and the TSA grouping individuals there is something many people do not know.

While the Govt. does not trust individuals they show so much trust on the backend you would be shocked

Airline maintenance, to save costs many airline companies outsource their aircraft maintenance to places like Turkey for cheap labour, without any checks on the non-certified aircraft below minimum wage aircraft "engineers" working on planes.

Also there's a company called ST Aerospace Mobile who owns major airline maintenance contracts
This companies has a few american employees but it also provides work VISAS for people from Turkey, the Ukraine, Japan many other places around the world. Many of these people do not speak english but are expected to follow an english manual on Boeing Mechanics.

The FAA does not require these "Engineers" to have any form of specialized education or certifications
They only judge the competency level of individuals as does the company ST Aerospace Mobile
Unless...........

Unless the individual was hired by a recruiting firm
One person working for ST said he contacted a recruiting firm that he never met, went to ST Aerospace Mobile and expected an interview but instead was expected to start working immediately with no test or anything.

Also this company ST has many many many undocumented and "illegal" aircraft parts that they do not know where they came from.

This entire scenario is madness

They do not trust individuals, they grope them, rape them of their rights but believe faceless nobodies in Turkey for going in and working on the aircraft for maintenance.

Also some employees spoke of PencilWhipping, where managers just sign saying this work was well done but no inspection has been made whatsoever. And engineers are also on the clock and sometimes are not allowed to work on a problem for more than a pre-defined amount of time even if more work is needed.

What in the world.........

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Also some employees spoke of PencilWhipping, where managers just sign saying this work was well done but no inspection has been made whatsoever. And engineers are also on the clock and sometimes are not allowed to work on a problem for more than a pre-defined amount of time even if more work is needed.

I will comment on the the portion I have knowledge about. While I do not come from the aircraft maintenance portion, I do come from the electronic-communications background (both military and FAA.)

Even while in the military there were those that would 'pencil whip'; which is the action of forging, yes forging, records that maintenance has been completed. May it be a check, a corrective actions or any other legal documented action.

There are though many that take their job serious and hate that type of practice. I know I take it seriously as my name is on a document that could potentially be used in court in the rare event of an aircraft accident. I put my name on record that I have personally checked the systems out and they operate as advertised. Some do take such a responsibility lightly, but I am not afraid to point out to them and management that it is not only derelict, but potentially deadly.

As far as the aircraft maintenance side, I am sure it is true. Just like it is in every industry. Again, EVERY industry. There are lazy people. There are those that don't do their jobs or do only the bare minimum. I am not defending them, but to solely focus on the FAA for this problem is to turn a blind eye to all the other industries where there are slouches that fail to meet their duties.

Now in regards to the maintenance side and being outsourced to different companies...I would hope that my employer is ensuring they have some type of certification. If not, here is a tool you can use: FAA ASAP Program

It is an internal program, but I am sure enough outside public attention would shine a light that they don't want to see. There are few departments that I would ever say are good within the Government. The FAA tries...yes, they are my employer but they actually do try to provide an efficient system of operating aircraft and providing safe transportation for the flying public.

There's a related thread here by Intrepid - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Guys, below is a link to the full episode
www.pbs.org...

It would be great if everyone could watch it

I believe it's quite an important topic