MatBlack: you might want to read about OUTSOURCING of US airline maintenance, which is done by many airlines. Does this happen in Britain/Ireland and Europe?
Yesterday's 'Wall Street Journal' (Jan 30) featured a long and interesting article about this. Form what I remember, here are some reproted tidbits. Some contract maintenance requires only that supervisors must have the FAA-approved license. The other workers are not required to have it, whether in the US or not. Much of the aircraft heavy maintenance is done overseas. About 20 years ago, a Convair 580 which belonged to a Navy Reserve VR squadron (NAF Washington/Andrews AFB) crashed with no surviviors while trying to return to the facility in Dothan, AL, US. An inspection of the elevator control cable was apparently missed. Recently, a contract with a major US airline (from my personal knowledge-I flew there...) at Dothan was almost cancelled until the airline transferred an experienced crew chief from the 'upper midwest' to work at the facility. I guess that cost big bucks....Ja, you betcha.
US low-cost JetBlue seems to send about a fourth of its planes each year to El Salvador for heavy maintenance. Some of their workers can pass an exam in English, many do not. The voluntary class is in Miami.
World airline leader Southwest allowed an executive to comment on the fact that they don't want their aircraft to be serviced by companies with high labor turnover. This was the only comment in the entire article about high turnover, whether it often actually is the case or not, which I noticed.
In the 90's Valuejet (now Airtran) had some engine maintenance done in a very southeastern European nation. While taking off in Atlanta after engine inspections, some pieces broke off of an engine and shrapnel sliced through the leg of a flight attendant on a DC-9, near the knee (hand grenade, anyone?). Painful?
A USAirways B-1900 crashed not too long ago at Charlotte NC due to problems following outside technical work.
In this article a former NTSB inspector (Loeb) who had maintenance experience seemed to express concern over the fact that so many airline mechanics/'engineers' are being laid off etc. Airlines are gradually losing their in-house highly technical' skills. Does an airline technician have more personal incentive than an 'outsourced' technician to do the job right, and not rush, when HIS family will fly on these same aircraft?
If this is the case, are airline exectives aware of this, or are they totally indifferent, because it can not be quantified in a "Cost Accounting 301" classroom?