There are other professionals who disagree with the state of the industry.
It will never change though because in all my years of flying one never really wanted anything to do with the other.
However I think there is a lot to be concerned about in this engineers press release. If todays situation is really as bad as both pilots and engineers seem to think it is, then why aren't you working together to solve it instead of wasting energy criticising an individual who has the right to free speech?
This is the release:
"The Association of Licenced Engineers must disagree with David Learmount’s comments regarding safety in the article “Pilots 'under pressure to take risks” Daily Telegraph 23/8/2005.
The fact is that the regulators have been warned now for some time that the safety scales are becoming unbalanced. The financial wizards are running the show at the moment to the detriment of safety. Of course the effects of this will not be seen overnight but once they bite, it will be a difficult, lengthy and extremely cost intensive process to reverse the trend. You cannot adequately train flight or ground personnel for this industry overnight.
More and more reports are showing that incidents are on the increase. Incidents are only a short step away from accidents. In a never ending quest to save money, maintenance is being squeezed to the limits and beyond. The average passenger hasn't a clue about the standard or quality of on-going maintenance and so this really has no effect on his decision with whom he should fly. Furthermore if passengers did react to a safety record when making that decision, then unfortunately that would indicate that it is already too late and innocent people have already suffered.
The ALAE accepts that the statistics probably support David’s statement but please do not be fooled by them. Maintenance cuts will not be noticed by the average passenger who will pay massive detail to the quality of his seat and in-flight entertainment yet is oblivious to the overrun "A" check or the delayed engine maintenance or the ever growing deferred defects list or the unqualified signatory or the ignored corrosion, and, and, and. He does however put his faith in the professionals within the industry who year after year have been told to turn the heating down a little to save money and become more efficient. Well it is about time that people realised, yourself included David, that maintenance engineers have had to turn the heating down so often, that they are on the verge of switching it off completely.
The problem of course with this type of situation is that, if we wait too long the results will be disastrous and prolonged. The warning signs are already there but are being ignored.
This situation also highlights a basic human weakness, despite human factors training, that of allowing history to repeat itself. Exactly the same scenario has already been witnessed within the rail industry. The association for one can still remember those union warnings about training and standards that fell upon deaf ears.
We all now know who got it right at the expense of the fare paying passenger. I think we would both agree that the effects of this industry getting it wrong will be far worse".