Airline Safety
In July of 1996, a Boeing 747 carrying the designator Flight 800 took off from Kennedy Airport in New York. On board were two hundred and thirty people who were entrusting their individual safety to an aircraft that had one of the best safety records in the airline industry. The Boeing 747 has been in service for many years, and has been utilized for many different things including the one designated Air Force One. Nine miles off the coast of Long Island the aircraft exploded, killing everybody on board (Adcock 08). The wreckage was strewn over a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean and proved to be very difficult to recover. It took several months to sift through the sand on the ocean floor and recover the parts from the aircraft. Speculation that the aircraft had somehow been the victim of a terrorist act was the topic of the day. There were theories that the aircraft had exploded as a result of a bomb placed aboard (Adcock 08). There were theories that it had been the victim o!f a ground to air missile or an air-to-air missile. There were investigations to find out if the Navy had inadvertently shot the aircraft down. Accusations were flung in the most unlikely places. Security at the international
One of the main problems with insuring the quality of maintenance is the fact that the inspections are carried out by the people working at the repair station. This means that the facilities themselves are providing their own oversight, with less than ten percent of the inspections being done by the airline personnel themselves. As a result, the smaller facilities are faced with the fact that they are in a sense policing themselves and they do not always have the resources, no matter how good their intentions, to manage a good safety and inspection program. The smaller facilities usually have only about fifty percent of their mechanics with Airframe and Powerplant Licenses. The Airframe and Powerplant Licenses are one way to insure a good standard of knowledge among licensed mechanics. The license does not, however, guarantee a good standard of competence and the mechanics at the smaller repair facilities are not typically paid as well as those working for the larger stations! "FENA for proper maintenance of DC-10s to keep these running, The Independent". September 2000 Dickey, Christopher. "What Went Wrong." Newsweek International. August 2000 Sullivan, John. "FAA delayed telling airlines about failed cables Agency defends move, saying part not crucial for flight control". The Dallas Morning News. June 2000 The Federal Aviation Agency has since initiated an aging aircraft program with the goal of inspecting the wiring harnesses of older aircraft to see if stepped up inspection and/or replacement were warranted. So far the results show a definite need for the increased maintenance requirements (Adcock 08). When the United States Air Force began to retrofit it's aging fleet of 707 aircraft for use in the Gulf War, it was discovered that the aircraft were in need of complete wiring harness replacement due to cracks and fraying in the current harnesses ("Air Safety Week"). Hinson, David. "ValuJet Airlines crash." Jet lag.(Federal Aviation Commission ( The New Republic ). 12-16-1996 The FAA is obviously doing everything that it can under the circumstances, however the trend toward cost cutting and compromise of maintenance programs is continuing. It is showing no signs of lessening due to the fact that the airlines are continually being squeezed between needing to lower fares and pay higher maintenance costs. The problems arise when the airlines initiate cost saving measures such as these and the quality of work is not maintained. There has been a five hundred percent increase in the incidents of unsatisfactory maintenance quality since the airlines began to use the third party repair facilities. There was one incident where the right engine separated from a Boeing 737-200 immediately after takeoff in 1992("Air Safety Week"). The aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt, but this wasn't the case when an engine caught fire on a 737-200 during takeoff. The aircraft overran the runway and stopped in a golf course ("Air Safety Week"). The result was seventy passengers killed out of one hundred and fifteen plus one person killed on the ground. Faulty maintenance procedures were found to be the cause of both accidents. It has been said by FENA that if the DC-10's owned by Bangladesh Airlines had been maintained properly there would be no need to replace them at this time ("Proper Maint!
Some common words found in the essay are:
Aviation Administration, Southwest Airlines, ValuJet Flight, United Airlines, Safety Week, Quantas Jet, Powerplant Licenses, Atlantic Ocean, Air Force, John FAA, safety week, repair facility, air safety week, air safety, adcock 08, inspection cycle, repair stations, federal aviation, repair facilities, dickey 08, air force, alaska flight 261, delayed telling airlines, federal aviation administration, incorrectly reports inspection,
Approximate Word count = 2801
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
