Re: 'Scathing' report on BA Maintenance practices
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times January 08, 2006
Safety in the skies
The Association of Licensed Aircraft Engineers (ALAE) was not at all surprised by your excellent article (Watchdog slams BA’s air safety, Insight, News, last week).
Your statement: “BA employs 6,000 engineers, compared with 9,500 in 1995 but its fleet remains at a similar size as 10 years ago” hides some shocking truths.
Our figures show that only about a third of the 6,000 engineers employed by British Airways are in fact fully qualified licenced aircraft engineers.
The aviation industry has seen the numbers of licenced engineers dwindle from 24,000 in 1979 to 12,000 today.
Yet during the same period, aircraft numbers have more than doubled. BA, like other airlines, is under financial pressure and staffing levels are stretched.
BA operates a policy that involves the licenced engineer only appearing at an aircraft if requested to do so. Something that was unheard of in the past.
Even pre-flight inspections, the last line of defence in uncovering anything untoward, has been taken away from the licenced engineer. The Australians refused to accept such a policy on the basis that it clearly affects safety.
Robert Alway
ALAE, Bagshot, Surrey
Any coments, is it just BA ?