CASA wants Qantas to make a range of improvements to the way it manages and delivers aircraft maintenance following a special review carried out by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
CASA has told the airline to produce a plan to address deficiencies in meeting some of its own maintenance performance targets.
At the same time Qantas will examine whether the existing lines of authority and control over maintenance within the airline are delivering the best possible outcomes.
While these actions are under way CASA will be conducting two additional intensive audits of Qantas.
The first will be a full maintenance audit of one aircraft of each major aircraft type in the Qantas fleet – a 747-400, 737-400 and 767-300. This will involve checking all maintenance documentation for each of these aircraft to see it has been completed, as well as physically examining the aircraft on the ground.
The second audit will focus on the effectiveness of Qantas maintenance systems in managing and implementing airworthiness directives. This will identify any weaknesses in Qantas maintenance systems in relation to managing the ongoing airworthiness of its aircraft.
CASA has also called on Qantas to report on how the recent failures to fully comply with airworthiness directive requirements have been addressed.
CASA's deputy chief executive officer Operations, Mick Quinn, says this comprehensive package of action is underway to address emerging problems within Qantas.
“CASA has looked carefully at the Qantas maintenance systems and performance and uncovered signs of emerging problems,” Mr Quinn says.
“The review found maintenance performance within Qantas is showing some adverse trends and is now below the airline's own benchmarks.
“By taking action now future safety problems will be avoided. The wide-ranging package of actions CASA has initiated will prevent any downward trend in Qantas maintenance performance.
“The review did not find any direct links between recent safety incidents, including the 747-400 oxygen bottle failure near Manila, or any increase in the rate of incidents. They were unrelated events - there was no apparent common cause. There has been no increase in the rate of incidents and over more than a year the number of monthly air safety incident reports was about the same.
“Qantas has fully co-operated with CASA at every stage of this review and provided complete access to key personnel, data and systems. The airline is to be commended for its proactive approach to this safety review.
“CASA is confident Qantas will act quickly and appropriately to address the issues and this will ensure Australians can continue to have full confidence in the airline.”
Are these guys kidding? They are not emerging problems...they are problems that have have existed for at least three years. Itis only because of recent incidents that CASA has been forced to get off its fat compliant backside and actually do something regarding Qantas Maintenance. It is only because the LAMES stood up to the Qantas bully boy tactics that these audits have even been carried out. Thank God for the Qantas LAMES and their integrity.
The CASA release that you have posted, Overrun, seems to be in a completely different tone as the one released by Qantas to the ASX this afternoon. Funny about that.........
Read the entire transcript on the CASA website.. not just the media release....
You will se that Mr Quinns replies to the questions asked have an incredible familiarity about them.... thats the QF spin on things..
They are pi$$ing in each others pockets.. This investigation is a sham!!
Basically, he is listening to the tripe from engineering management and their quick fix knee jerk reactions to things and he has been hoodwinked into believing the "system" that DC and co have destroyed, is just fine with a bit of an adjustment needed...
All it does is let DC and his ACS management team gloat that their system is in casas view.
My prediction is that the review by CASA of QF Engineering will actually make things much, much, worse.
How do I know this? Because Managements action will be to fix the problem not the cause.
I would thus expect another two layers of paperwork will thus be installed to prevent anything from sullying QF's reviewable paperwork.
The only consolation for you LAMES will be that your managers will be so busy writing weekly progress reports detailing how they are fixing things that they will have little time to harass you.
Or, to put it simply, in the old way: "The floggings will continue until morale improves."
I wouldn't be so negative, it is the first time I have ever seen CASA speak in this tone about QF. Some of the other bits from the full transcript include -
Quote:
Some of these trends were probably exacerbated by the recent industrial activity, but I think it's important to add here that our analysis indicates that some of these trends have been, you know, trending before the industrial activity. So, I think it's fair to say that we don't believe that they, these aspects are completely related to that. They certainly didn't help. And they've got a management, a rectification management program in place now, because there was a bit of a maintenance backlog as a result of that. But we believe that these trends existed before that activity.
Quote:
The three particular issues are that of (1) organisational functionality in the engineering and maintenance operation; and we believe that the organisation needs to thoroughly align accountability and responsibility to approve the authority itself, and control of, the engineering and maintenance program. So we're largely talking about management structure of engineering.
Quote:
And at the moment, we believe that there are some potential areas where things might slip through the gaps, and they need to tighten up, as I said, the split of accountability and responsibility.
However actions speak louder than words. The ALAEA will be seeking involvement and input into the changes and monitoring the process. The above statements are a good start though.
"Cut back Tech Services? Not a problem!" "Reduce the numbers in Maintenance Watch and move them where they can't be consulted face to face? No worries!" "Only 20 LAMEs trained on the A380? Too easy!" "Move the whole engineering management team to The Bunker? We'll still be relevant, functional and accountable! Honest!" "Ignore what the pesky LAMEs have been telling us for the last three years? Not an MBA among them! What would they f**kin know - oops I mean Would we do a thing like that?"
Just in case anyone missed it:
Quote:
The three particular issues are that of (1) organisational functionality in the engineering and maintenance operation; and we believe that the organisation needs to thoroughly align accountability and responsibility to approve the authority itself, and control of, the engineering and maintenance program. So we're largely talking about management structure of engineering. And at the moment, we believe that there are some potential areas where things might slip through the gaps, and they need to tighten up, as I said, the split of accountability and responsibility.
Any action by CASA has to be welcomed - the very fact the so called watchdog has woken up and dragged its sorry bum off the sleepy verandah is a good thing - whether it's Q, Singapore, DJ or any other carrier (PARTICULARLY FAOC HOLDERS) scrutiny is a good thing.
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gloat that their system is 
in casas view. 
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