Sick Birds Make For Unsafe Flight

04/11/2008

Paul Munnis


When an aircraft condition arises such that it puts the life and limb of people aboard the aircraft at risk, the aircraft is said to be not airworthy and the aircraft can be grounded by the FAA. When a fix is available for the unsafe condition the fix is called an “Airworthiness Directive (AD)” and can be made mandatory to repair, usually by a certain date. That is to say that by a certain date all effected aircraft must have the AD applied. It is not optional, they “must” have the AD applied.

Remember, AD’s are life or death issues and they are not to be treated lightly.

Every manufacturer of every airplane has at some time or other been hit with an AD. As some airframe and power plant mechanics say there are only two kinds of aircraft – those that have outstanding AD’s and those will have outstanding AD’s. These are a fact of life in the industry. Anyone who runs an airline is aware of the FAA and aware of AD’s. As aircraft age they become more susceptible to an outstanding AD because as aircraft components wear out and shock and vibration stresses airframes and engines, unsafe conditions can come about.

Normally a carrier looks at the AD’s, looks at their fleet, and works to get the AD’s applied as rapidly as possible. American Airlines did not do that. They postponed the application of an AD dealing with safe wiring on the MD-80 aircraft made by McDonnell Douglas and they kept putting it off. They did not take a percent of their fleet offline and fix the problems and then return them to service as they should have done. Instead they ignored the AD’s and the FAA had to go after them and demand that they update the aircraft for public safety.

Making it worse, the American Airlines mechanics improperly applied the fix. That is to say that they did not make the fix the way that the FAA directed that it be applied. Airframe and power plant mechanics are master mechanics that are licensed and who are held to high standards and when they fail to follow an AD properly they can lose their license. Applying a life or death safety fix in a slip-shod manner is not acceptable practice for licensed airline mechanics. The public bets their lives on these guys and demands quality of workmanship. Because they are licensed, they have liability for their work.

The blame for the American Airline passenger flight cancellations therefore belongs entirely to American Airlines and to nobody else for the canceled flights. They have a responsibility under the law to provide safe flight and they failed to respond properly thus requiring that the aircraft be grounded until such time as the aircraft are safe to fly.

To all the readers who say “but…” I say there is no but. Nobody should buy a ticket in good faith, be taken to 35,000 feet, then have the aircraft catch on fire, then crash and kill all aboard. Commercial aircraft today carry as much as 300 passengers and that would be wholesale murder. American Airlines is derelict in their duty and the FAA should seriously consider if the carrier should remain in business. They have the right to put AA out of business entirely and they should seriously consider doing so.

As for the passengers who were inconvenienced it comes down to a question of “would you like to be delayed for 24 hours or be dead?” The FAA is in place to prevent the loss of life. Nobody wants a flaming MD-80 falling out of the sky and landing on their house.

Today the Wall Street Journal blamed Congress for the passenger inconvenience and they could not be further from the truth. The fault lies with American Airlines. As for the loss of income and the damage to the economy all of that is secondary to putting the lives of innocent passengers at risk.

Unsafe aircraft do not belong in the air!